Israeli soldier killed in rocket attack

An Israeli soldier has been killed and two were injured in a rocket attack by Hezbollah guerillas along the south Lebanon border.

The attack in the disputed Chebaa Farms area provoked an Israeli artillery bombardment of south Lebanon that lasted more than an hour.

The killing is the second Israeli military fatality along the Israeli-Lebanese border since Israel withdrew from south Lebanon last May.

In October, an Israeli soldier was killed in a Hezbollah roadside bomb attack in the Chebaa district.

Israeli military say they are checking reports of the attack. Earlier, Israeli military sources in the border area said several Israeli soldiers had been wounded by an explosion.

Lebanese security officials say the guerrillas hit the Israeli vehicle, a Hummer, with a Sagger anti-tank missile as it was driving along a road toward a military outpost in Chebaa Farms.

The blast killed at least one Israeli soldier and wounded two others, said other security officials.

In Beirut, the Hezbollah group said its guerrillas scored a direct hit on the Hummer. It said the attack was carried out by a unit called Al-Aqsa Martyrs, a reference to the victims of the current Palestinian uprising, to mark the anniversary of the Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah leaders Ragheb Harb and Abbas Musawi.

Sheik Musawi, his wife, five-year-old son and five bodyguards were killed in an attack by Israeli helicopter gunships in south Lebanon in 1992. They were ambushed after attending a ceremony marking the anniversary of Israel's 1984 assassination of Mr Harb.

Israeli 155mm howitzers fired at suspected guerrilla hideouts in south Lebanon despite dense fog. There is no immediate word on casualties from the Israeli shelling.