Around 30 Israel Defense Forces(IDF) soldiers were wounded on Wednesday in
fierce gun battles with Hezbollah guerillas in the southern Lebanese town of
Bint Jbail.
The IDF troops managed to retrieved the injured soldiers back under the
ongoing heavy exchanges of fire.
Despite taking control of the town the day before, IDF troops still engaged
in close-quarter fighting with Hezbollah gunmen on Wednesday.
At a meeting of the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel was not
surprised by the extent of the Hezbollah's resistance in Bint Jbail.
Bint Jbail, a major town in the southern Lebanon, is about 2 kms north of the
hilltop village of Maroun al-Ras. Over the weekend, IDF ground troops fought for
control of Maroun al-Ras, which is less than 500 meters from the border.
According to IDF, some 30 Hezbollah fighters have been killed during battles
in Maroun al-Ras. The IDF was preparing to bring the bodies of some of them back
into Israel.
The Hezbollah-Israel conflict in Lebanon entered its 15th day since the
Israeli troops launched military assault against Lebanon on July 12 in the wake
of the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in cross-border attacks.
Some 400 Lebanese and more than 40 Israelis have been killed in the
15-day-old confrontations as tens of thousands of foreign nationals have been
fleeing Lebanon.
