Nasrallah: Hezbollah bombed Israeli troops
Bombs detonated by remote control, Lebanese group’s head says, discussing attack that injured four Israeli soldiers.
The leader of Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah says members of his party were behind last week’s bombing that wounded four Israeli soldiers.
Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday that two bombs were detonated by remote control inside Lebanon, giving the group’s first account of an incident about which Israeli military officials have given few details.
The Lebanese army said last week that a group of Israeli soldiers crossed the border into Lebanon and were wounded in an explosion.
The army said the force was 400 metres inside Lebanon.
After the incident, an Israeli spokesman said only that four soldiers were wounded during “an activity near the border” with Lebanon.
Israel also appeared to dispute where the bombing happened.
The border between the two countries has been largely quiet since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.
Nasrallah told Lebanese television station Al-Mayadeen TV station that the group had information the Israeli force was going to enter Lebanon and planted bombs.
Hezbollah fighters planted bombs in an area they knew in advance Israeli soldiers would pass through, and detonated one of them when a first group of special forces reached the area.
First account
A second bomb was triggered when Israeli reinforcements arrived on the scene, Nasrallah said.
“The operation’s area was under the sight of fighters of the Islamic resistance, it has been previously assured
and by different means, we already had information that Israelis will pass in this region,” he explained.
“Sure, it is a hard region, there is a lot of trees with rocks, mountains and valleys, so bombs were planted there and when they came, you know they came in a very dark night, the bombs were triggered.”
“What was blown up is a new bomb that was put some time ago, and not a landmine left behind by the Israeli army,” Nasrallah said during the interview.
“The first bomb was exploded in the first group of special forces, the Goulani, and when the reinforcements group arrived, the second bomb was triggered, and the bomb were controlled, and there were injuries.”
It was a controlled and deliberate operation, not an accidental one, he said of the explosions.
Nasrallah did not say how the Hezbollah fighters knew in advance of the Israeli incursion, but said the group
“will not accept these territorial violations” into Lebanon.