Hezbollah and Lebanese Army on alert on Lebanese-Israeli border

Jan 11, 2009, 17:44 GMT

Beirut - The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army went on full alert Sunday after unknown gunmen in Syria opened fire on a group of Israeli military engineers in the Israeli- occupied Golan Heights.

According to an eyewitness in the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah militants were seen taking their positions in the mountainous Knessineh area overlooking the Israeli-Lebanese border shortly after the Golan incident took place.

Lebanese security sources said that all precautionary measures have been taken by the Lebanese Army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to prevent any incident that would breach the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel.

Hezbollah and Israel fought 33 days of fierce battles in 2006, after the Shiite group snatched two Israeli soldiers in a cross- border attack.

The fighting came to an end after the UN Security Council issued Resolution 1701 calling for a halt to all violence in August 2006 and called on the Lebanese Army and UN forces to monitor the situation on the border.

It was believed that the firing of shots in the Golan Heights was by Palestinian militants in protest at Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and cause tension on a second front.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army and UN peacekeepers intensified their patrols on the Lebanese side of the border to prevent any incident similar to Thursday's firing of Katyusha rockets into northern Israel.

Hezbollah has denied it fired the salvo into northern Israel, and officials in both Israel and Lebanon said it was probably the work of a radical Palestinian faction.