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Hizbollah rockets hit Israeli soil near Lebanon

KIRYAT SHMONA (Israel): Several Katyusha rockets, apparently fired by Hizbollah guerrillas, struck Israeli territory on Wednesday close to the border with south Lebanon, Israeli security sources said.

The rockets hit during a guerrilla barrage directed at two Israeli army outposts near the border in the "security zone" Israel occupies in south Lebanon, they said. One of the army outposts sustained damage, but no injuries were reported.

Hizbollah guerrillas are fighting to oust Israel from the border strip Israel carved out in the mid-1980s.

The guerrilla salvo followed Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, a day after Israeli shelling killed a Lebanese civilian and a Lebanese soldier in a village facing the centre of the zone.

Israel has promised to withdraw its troops from the occupation zone by July, with or without an increasingly elusive peace agreement with Syria, the main power-broker in Lebanon.-Reuters