Nabatiyeh - Twelve civilians, including a two-month-old baby, were injured in an Israeli air raid on south Lebanon yesterday, witnesses said. The casualties, six of them children, were hurt by rockets which landed near the house of a leader of the pro-Syrian Amal guerrilla group in Habboush, on the fringe of Israel's occupation zone.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli military said its planes struck the village by accident. "During an Israeli air force attack this afternoon in the eastern sector in south Lebanon, one of the bombs mistakenly hit the outskirts of Habboush," it said in a statement.
"The Israel Defence Forces do their utmost to prevent attacks on civilians," it said, adding that the military would investigate.
The incident raised to 51 the number of civilians injured in the south Lebanon conflict this year. Hizbullah, the Iranian and Syrian-backed guerrilla group leading the fight against Israel, has in the past avenged civilian casualties by firing rockets into Israeli territory.
The air raid was preceded by an exchange of fire between Hizbullah and the Israeli army and its South Lebanon Army militia allies in the area. In Beirut the Lebanese President, Mr Emile Lahoud, denounced the Israeli attack as a "heinous crime".