Israeli bomb expert killed by Lebanese resistance

Lebanon's Amal movement claimed responsibility for a Wednesday bomb attack that it said killed an intelligence officer in the pro-Israeli Lahd militia and wounded three Israelis.

Security sources in Israel and the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army said the bomb went off just inside Israel at a crossing from Israeli-occupied south Lebanon, killing one person and wounding three other people. The SLA source in Marjayoun said the three wounded were members of Israeli intelligence, but Israeli sources said that only one of the three was a sapper (an explosives inspector).

Moreover, the Amal movement said in a statement: "A group of our resistance-men gave a blow to the intelligence operation of the Israeli army by detonating a very sophisticated bomb against a number of its officers," adding that "Samir Ruslan, an officer in the Intelligence department of the Israeli client militia, SLA, was killed in this attack."

Some reports said that those injured in the blast were two Lebanese civilians and two Israeli civilians, in addition to the Israeli bomb expert.

The bomb exploded after the man who was killed crossed from the Lebanese village of Kafer Kela to the Israeli town of Metulla, a main entrance point into Israel's self-declared security zone in south Lebanon.

The Amal sources said the bomb was apparently meant to go off inside Israel, as opposed to the border crossing, which is used by Israeli troops and civilians, as well as SLA militiamen.

Amal joins Hizbollah in the fight against Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon.

Also in south Lebanon Thursday, Israeli troops released six civilians they had kidnapped from their homes in Shebaa after lifting a month-old siege on the village.