Israel's man in south Lebanon urges Israeli troops to stay

The Lebanese commander of the Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army militia on Tuesday urged Israel not to withdraw unilaterally from a border strip it occupies in south Lebanon as a buffer zone against cross-border guerrilla attacks.

"A withdrawal is not in the interest of Lebanon and not in the interests of Israel," General Antoine Lahd said. He spoke in an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV published Wednesday.

If Israel pulled out without preconditions, he said, "the area would be dominated" by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas. He expressed worry that many of his fighters would join anti-Israel militias "because they would feel betrayed."

Hezbollah and other militant groups are fighting to evict Israeli forces from the buffer zone set up in 1985 which is patrolled by some 1,500 Israeli soldiers and 2,500 militiamen of the South Lebanon Army. Israel's government has been under increasing pressure lately to withdraw from south Lebanon as the number of casualties in the ongoing war of attrition reached unprecedented heights.

37 Israelis have been killed and at least 75 others wounded this year in south Lebanon, the highest number of casualties in one year since Israel set up the border zone.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would withdraw from the south, only of the Lebanese army promised to secure the border and incorporate Lahd's men into its ranks. Lebanon depicts SLA militiamen as "traitors" and Lahd himself has been convicted in absentia by a Lebanese court for treachery and aiding enemy Israel.