Lebanese army dismantles 4 rockets near Israel

The Lebanese troops early Wednesday found and dismantled four rockets near the border with Israel, a day after a rocket hit the Jewish state, a senior Lebanese army official said.

The attack Tuesday drew a rapid response from Israeli artillery in a brief flare-up across the tense border that caused no casualties.

A security source in Lebanon said eight rockets fired from Israel then hit near the border village of Hula. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

An Israeli military spokeswoman later confirmed that "artillery had opened fire on the sector from which the Katyusha rocket was fired."

She said the army considered the attack as "serious, and considers that responsibility for it falls on the Lebanese government."

The Lebanese official said the rockets, discovered on Wednesday, were placed in a building under construction in the Houla area from where Tuesday's rocket was launched.

He said three of the four Katyusha rockets found were ready to be fired. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

The Lebanon-Israel border has been largely quiet since Israel and Hezbollah group fought a bitter war in 2006.

UNIFIL inquiry

U.N. peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese army cut off the road to Hula late Tuesday and searched the area, an AFP correspondent said.

Yasmina Bouziane, spokeswoman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, said an inquiry has begun.

"UNIFIL immediately launched an investigation," she said, adding that the force had deployed additional troops in the area in coordination with the Lebanese army.

While no group claimed responsibility, Israel will have its eyes on Hezbollah.

A rocket exploded in a village there on Oct. 12 in the home of activist Abdel Nasser Issa.

The Israeli military released footage from a drone that it said showed rockets being removed from the building.

But Hezbollah's al-Manar television broadcast pictures it said showed men outside a garage putting a rolled up metal shutter into a truck, watched by a Lebanese soldier and two U.N. troops.

Israel's military said the blast "proves again the presence of weapons forbidden in southern Lebanon" under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war.

The conflict killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

UNIFIL immediately launched an investigation

Yasmina Bouziane, UNIFIL

Resolution 1701

Resolution 1701 called for the removal of weapons in southern Lebanon from the hands of everyone except the Lebanese army and other state security forces.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of rearming, and an Israeli military spokesman has claimed the group has "dozens of arms caches containing hundreds of rockets."

Following the Oct. 12 incident, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Hezbollah of turning Lebanon into a powder keg.

Tuesday's attack on Israel was the fourth from Lebanon this year, and both it and the retaliation were condemned by acting Prime Minister Fouad Saniora in Beirut.

"We condemn the use of Lebanese territory to launch Katyusha rockets across Lebanese borders and the aggressive Israeli retaliation on areas of the south and Lebanese lands," he said.

On Sept. 11, at least two rockets fired from the southern village of al-Qlaileh hit Israel without causing casualties but triggering artillery fire. A group linked to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.

In February, Israeli artillery bombarded al-Qlaileh in response to a rocket attack which lightly wounded several Israelis.

We condemn the use of Lebanese territory to launch Katyusha rockets across Lebanese borders and the aggressive Israeli retaliation on areas of the south and Lebanese lands

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora