More violence in the South

Four members of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) were injured, yesterday, when the Lebanese resistance detonated a bomb near Qantara, after several Israeli raids on Iqlim Al-Tuffah. The resistance issued a statement claiming the responsibility for the bomb and announcing a series of attacks on the Israeli positions in Bir-Al-Kaleb and Rihan.

Qantara is in the central sector of the border strip, which Israel has occupied since 1985 as a so-called "security zone."

Israeli warplanes bombarded Iqlim-Al-Tuffah, especially Sujud, al- Reihan, Mazraat Aqmata, el Jaba al-Rafi', al-Wadi el-Akhdar, and the middle sector and broke the sound barrier over Beirut repeatedly. It was reported that a Ghanaian soldier serving with UNIFIL was injured in the shelling.

Meanwhile, American ambassador Richard Jones excluded the liklihood of major Israeli strikes in the South, after his meeting with prime minister Rafik Hariri. He said that, after the end of the Iraqi crisis, the American effort will be focused on the peace process.