Katyusha rockets hit northern Israeli town

[maddezmom]

Katyusha rockets hit northern Israeli town
By Benny Dagan

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel, June 17 (Reuters) - Two Katyusha rockets hit the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the border with Lebanon on Sunday, the Israeli army and police said.

It was the first apparent cross-border attack since last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

A security source in Lebanon said it was not Hezbollah but Palestinian fighters who were suspected of firing four or five rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel, an area bombarded by thousands of Hezbollah Katyushas last July and August.

"There were four or five rockets fired into northern Israel," the source said.

Israeli emergency services and police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said there were no casualties reported in the town but, police said, a car and roadways were damaged. Residents were ordered into air raid shelters, Israeli television said.

One television channel showed a car with its front smashed and with a shattered windscreen as well as an apparently shrapnel-sprayed street sign at the entrance to an industrial zone in Kiryat Shmona.

more:http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17604653.htm

[maddezmom]

1. Lebanese sources: Hezbollah denies involvement in rocket attack on northern Israel

Lebanese sources: Hezbollah denies involvement in rocket attack on northern Israel
BEIRUT (CNN) -- Hezbollah is denying it fired two Katyusha rockets that were fired from southern Lebanon and landed near the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona on Sunday, Lebanese security sources told CNN.

There were no casualties as a result of the attack.

The Lebanese sources said a third Katyusha landed just inside Lebanon's border near a United Nations observation post, also causing no casualties.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/17/sunday/index.html

[oberliner]

2. If not Hezbollah, then who?

Is anyone claiming responsibility?

[henank]

3. Hizbollah denied it was them.

Suspicion is falling on Fatah al-Islam, the terrorist group fighting in the refugee camp in Lebanon.

IDF officials said that the rockets were apparently launched from an area very close to UN outposts in southern Lebanon.

<...snip...> Hizbullah denied it was behind the attack.

<...snip...> The Northern Command estimated that the rockets were launched by a Palestinian organization operating in southern Lebanon, but did not rule out the possibility that the rockets belonged to Hizbullah. However, other military source said the rockets were not launched by Hizbullah, but by Palestinian organizations.

Lebanese journalists also estimated that a Palestinian organization was behind the attack as part of a struggle taking place near the border between extremist organizations and the Lebanese military.

They indicated that the “Fatah al-Islam” organization has said that its goal was to fight “the Zionists”.

<...snip...> Another source added, “From what we know of Hizbullah and its firing methods, it wasn’t Hizbullah. In the past, when there was tension in Gaza, we witnessed similar attacks from points near the fence, so it was probably a Palestinian organization that fired the rockets.”

From Ynet

[Eugene]

6. Group Claims Rocket Attack on Israel

Source: Associated Press

Group Claims Rocket Attack on Israel

Monday June 18, 2007 11:46 AM

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - A previously unknown militant
Islamic group claimed responsibility Monday for a rocket
attack on northern Israel.

The self-proclaimed group, “the Jihadi Badr Brigades -
Lebanon branch,” vowed in a statement faxed to The
Associated Press in Beirut to continue attacks on Israel.

-snip-

The authenticity of the group's claim could not be
immediately confirmed.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6717563,00.html

---

Even if this claim is not genuine, al-Qaeda and affiliated
jihadist groups have popped up to make unstable situations
even less stable. Hezbollah is not the only militant group
in Lebanon.

[maddezmom]

4. Israel shells south Lebanon after rocket attack

ADAYSSEH, Lebanon (AFP) - Israeli troops fired five shells at south Lebanon where the army was searching for the guerrillas who fired rockets earlier Sunday on northern Israel, security forces said.

Five shells slammed on the mountainous areas of Birkat Naqqar and Jabal Saddaneh near the town of Shebaa in the eastern sector of the border with Israel, they said. There were no reports of casualties.

Lebanese troops carried out patrols and erected checkpoints in search of a civilian vehicle from where the rockets were apparently fired into northern Israel, they said.

An AFP correspondent saw Lebanese troops cordoning off an area between the villages of Adaysseh and Taibe, in the central sector of the border zone, where a rocket was apparently left behind by the guerrillas.


more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070617/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanon_070617171641

[barb162]

5. Here's another; a third rocket hit near a UNIFIL base

Last update - 21:36 17/06/2007

Siniora: We'll spare no effort to find those behind Katyusha fire

By Eli Ashkenazi, Amos Harel, and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Sunday his country would "spare no effort" in finding those responsible for the Katyusha rocket attacks on Kiryat Shmona earlier in the day.

snip

"Two Katyusha rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona, and caused damage to a vehicle and roads. There were no injuries," a police spokesman said.

A third rocket struck next to a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the southern Lebanese village of Houla.


snip
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/871860.html