The Albany Gazette - Israel launches more south Lebanon strikes after warnings

Lebanon's army said a "targeted" Israeli strike wounded two soldiers in the south, just a day after military delegations from both countries held landmark security talks in Washington.

The military talks in the US capital came ahead of US-brokered negotiations early next week -- the fourth round since the latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict erupted.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli several strikes in the south, including artillery fire near the mediaeval-era Beaufort castle.

Culture Minister Ghassan Salame had warned on Friday that Israeli attacks were putting Lebanese heritage sites in "serious danger".

The Lebanese presidency announced in a statement that President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had agreed "to intensify contacts to put an end to these condemned Israeli practices" ahead of the new round of talks with Israel scheduled for June 2 and 3.

Aoun and Salam discussed "Israeli attacks and their expansion to a number of southern cities and villages, especially in the districts of Tyre and Nabatieh, in addition to the continued bombing and bulldozing of houses, and the destruction of historical landmarks in the south".

Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's second-in-command, called the latest discussions between Lebanon and Israel's military delegations "productive", but made no mention of a ceasefire, a key Lebanese demand.

- 'Israeli drone' -

Lebanon's military said on Saturday its two soldiers "were seriously wounded as a result of being targeted inside a vehicle by a hostile Israeli drone" near the southern city of Nabatieh.

A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah officially took effect on April 17, but has never been observed. Iran insists that Lebanon be included in any agreement with the United States to end the wider war that engulfed the Middle East region in February.

Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other of violating the ceasefire and justify their own attacks by the other's alleged breaches.

The Israeli military's evacuation warnings for Saturday included some villages near Nabatieh and some in the east of the country.

Also on Saturday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

The group said it also ambushed Israeli soldiers near Ghandouriyeh in southern Lebanon, saying it forced them to withdraw, and fired rockets at a military base in north Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday that Israeli forces had advanced beyond the Litani river that runs around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the Lebanon-Israel frontier.

"Our forces have crossed the Litani, they have moved up to the commanding terrain," he said, adding Israel was "hitting Hezbollah head on".

Israeli strikes on the south killed 11 people on Friday, according to the health ministry in Beirut.

The ministry says that Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,300 people since March 2, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran.

Hezbollah said it attacked Israel in retaliation for the death of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes when the war erupted on February 28.

(O.Robinson--TAG)