Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas exchanged heavy fire across the border with Israeli troops occupying the foothills of the Golan Heights today, witnesses and security sources said.
They said Israeli tanks pounded the fringes of the Lebanese town of Kfar Shouba, which lies near the Shebaa Farms, a disputed strip of land near the border between Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hizbollah bombarded Israeli positions with mortar bombs, they said, adding that at least one Israeli position had been set ablaze. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Syrian and Iranian-backed Hizbollah, which helped end Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000, has vowed to drive Israel from the Shebaa Farms.
Lebanon and Syria say the area is Lebanese, but the United Nations, which certified Israel's withdrawal as complete, considers it Syrian land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.