1938 Alert: “Israel bombs bases in Lebanon,” from Reuters, with thanks to JE:
Military officials say Israeli jets have fired missiles at two Palestinian militant bases in Lebanon.
The attack has come hours after rockets fired into northern Israel wounded an Israeli soldier.
Witnesses say they have seen columns of black smoke rising from a military base just outside Beirut and another in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Both bases are run by the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian-General Command (PFLP-GC)….
Palestinian militants at Luci have fired automatic rifles and anti-aircraft guns at the Israeli planes.
The Lebanese army says its anti-aircraft units have responded at the PFLP-GC’s large Naameh bunker near Beirut.
Israel says one of the bunkers was used as an arms store.
“Following the attack today, we responded with air strikes against two terrorist targets in Lebanon,” an Israeli army spokesman said.
“One of the targets was used to store weapons and ammunition.”
Revenge swornThe exchange has come two days after a senior Islamic Jihad official and his brother were killed in a car bombing in southern Lebanon that the Palestinian group has blamed on Israel.
Lebanon’s Hizbollah guerrilla group, which controls the Lebanese side of the border, also blamed Israel for the assassination.
Islamic Jihad officials swore revenge after the car bombing.
It is unclear who fired the rockets into northern Israel.
Hizbollah has had no immediate comment on that attack or the subsequent Israeli air strikes.