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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Israeli quagmire
IN WHAT was described as the bloodiest ambush in months, a resistance attack by Hizbullah on Sunday killed four Israelis, including an army general; it was the third blow Israel suffered in south Lebanon in less than a week.A commander of Israel's paratroop commandos and two of his lieutenants were killed and five soldiers wounded on 23 February. The Israeli unit was trying to infiltrate north of the occupation zone in the western Bekaa when the Islamic resistance guerrillas, lying in wait, attacked. The Islamic resistance is the military wing of Hizbullah.
"It was an ambush of an ambush. A relatively large and well trained force, headed to ambush Hizbullah cells, fell into an ambush," the Israeli daily Haaretz wrote. "The professionalism of Hizbullah can be measured by the fact that its men came out without a casualty."
"The Israeli patrol and their response were disorganised," the commander of the Hizbullah unit -- his face covered with camouflage paint -- told reporters in an underground bunker in the Bekaa Valley. "We spotted the patrol advancing on foot, attacked them at close range -- some four metres away -- with grenades and automatic weapons. We fired mortar rounds on the rescue team before managing to escape under cover of fire from our forces positioned in the rear."
