RASHAYA, Lebanon, Jan 17 (AFP) - The Israeli air force launched two bombing raids on an area adjacent to the disputed Shebaa Farms Monday, following an attack by Shiite militant group Hezbollah on an Israeli bulldozer, Lebanese police said.
A fighter-bomber fired two missiles on a hilltop position in Alman al-Qusair that had been held by Israel before its 2000 pullout from south Lebanon, slightly wounding two Lebanese women, the police said.
An hour later, a jet ploughed two more missiles into a valley next to the western sector of the Israeli border but caused no casualties, they added.
Israeli artillery also opened up after the Hezbollah attack, firing nearly 45 shells in 15 minutes around the villages of Kfar Shuba, Rashaya al-Fakhar, Kfar Hamam and Halta without causing any casualties, police added.
An AFP correspondent saw Israeli helicopters and other aircraft could be seen flying over Lebanese soil at low altitude.
The Israeli military confirmed that the bulldozer had been hit but said it had suffered only material damage and the attack had caused no casualties.
A military spokesman said that the air raid was "responding to today's Hezbollah attack and the prior attacks", referring to a Hezbollah strike last week in the same disputed Shebaa Farms district that killed one Israeli soldier and wounded three.
Retaliatory Israeli fire hit a UN peacekeeping patrol, killing a French soldier and wounding a Swede.
The United Nations later said Hezbollah bore the principal blame for the casualties.
It rejected the militant group's argument that attacks on the Shebaa Farms were legitimate because the district remained Israeli-occupied.
Seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war along with the rest of the strategic Golan Heights, the Shebaa Farms are now claimed by Lebanon with Syrian blessing.
01/17/2005 15:38 GMT - AFP