Israel bombs 'wrong' target in southern Lebanon
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - Early this morning Israeli planes bombed the Naameh area between Beirut and Saida. According to the Israeli army, the goal was a "terrorist site", from which missiles were fired yesterday on Nahariya (Israel north). But the group of Palestinian militants based in Naameh deny having anything to do with missiles, whose launch was instead claimed by a group close to Al Qaeda.
The four rockets fired from
Lebanon into Israel did some damage, but left no casualties. However
all air traffic was stopped and sirens have sounded the alarm in the area of
Haifa. There
were no casualties either from the Israeli air raid.
The
affected area in the valley of Naameh is in the hands of the General Commander
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Jibril, known for
his support for Syria and Bashar Assad. The
Front's spokesman, Ramez Mustapha said that the air raid took place at 4 am
this morning (local time) "without causing any casualties or damage,"
and denied that his group had fired the missiles yesterday.
The
attack was instead claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a group linked to Al
Qaeda, which in the past has been responsible for rocket attacks against Israel
in 2009 and 2011.
Nevertheless,
the Israeli army boasted that he had "precisely hit its target."
Michel
Suleiman, President of Lebanon, insisted yesterday that the launching of rockets
from Lebanese territory is a violation of UN resolutions and those responsible
must be brought to justice. Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his part said that "we will strike anyone
who hurts or tries to hurt us".