4 Hezbollah fighters killed in strikes on al-Naqoura, Mays al-Jabal
Four Hezbollah fighters were killed Monday in south Lebanon, with the Iran-backed group announcing a retaliatory attack.
Hezbollah announced the deaths of the four fighters, two of them from al-Naqoura, "on the road to Jerusalem" -- the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that "at least four Hezbollah fighters were killed in Israeli raids on two different sites in southern Lebanon", identifying the locations as Naqoura on the coast and Mays al-Jabal, a border village to the east.
The Israeli military said fighter jets struck "a Hezbollah terrorist cell" and a launch post in the Mays al-Jabal area, while Israeli army "artillery fired to remove a threat" in the Naqoura area.
Hezbollah said it launched a heavy rocket attack at an Israeli army barracks in the country's north "in retaliation" for the Naqoura strike, while also announcing other attacks on Israeli positions, including al-Raheb, al-Marj, al-Malkia, and the Ramim barracks in northern Israel, the Zebdine post in the occupied Shebaa Farms, and an army position in the village of al-Ghajar in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah said it targeted the Biranit barracks with a heavy Burkan missile in response to the Naqoura strike.
Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli strikes on Mays al-Jabal and Naqoura, where it said Israel fired near Hezbollah-affiliated rescue personnel and wounded a civilian.
Israeli warplanes had struck overnight Jabal Blat, al-Odaisseh, and the outskirts of Aitaroun, as Hezbollah carried out Sunday nine attacks on Israeli posts with artillery shells, missiles, and suicide drones.
The fighting has killed at least 423 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but also including 82 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 14 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
The violence has raised fears of all-out conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which went to war in 2006.
