Israeli, Lebanese, UN officers to discuss cross-border killing

Israeli, Lebanese and UN military officers will meet on Monday to defuse tension after a "rogue" Lebanese soldier shot dead an Israeli soldier the day before, Israel's defense minister said.        

The Lebanese soldier went missing after the cross-border shooting, but has now been found, a Lebanese security source said.        

Sunday's incident jarred the relatively stable standoff between the two neighbors, which last saw major hostilities in the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.         

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said in statement that Israel regards "the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army as responsible for what happens on their side".         

He said Israeli and Lebanese liaison officers, along with peacekeepers of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, would meet to clarify the incident. UNIFIL said it was urging restraint.         

"We will demand of the Lebanese army first of all an explanation as to what happened and whether this was indeed a rogue soldier; what they have done with him, and what the Lebanese army plans to do in order to prevent incidents of this kind," Yaalon said.        

Israel said its soldier was driving near the border fence at its westernmost point of Ras Naqoura when he was shot by a Lebanese army sniper. Israeli troops who searched the frontier area later shot at two Lebanese soldiers who "made suspicious movements", hitting one of them, an army spokeswoman said.                

The Lebanese security source said the Israelis fired into Lebanon during the night, but had caused no casualties.       

"The (Lebanese) soldier was found this morning by the Lebanese army in the area where the shooting took place," the source said, without giving further details. Contact with the soldier had been lost after the incident.         

Israel has lodged a complaint with UNIFIL, which has been stationed in southern Lebanon since 1978, and said it had heightened its state of preparedness along the border.           

"We will not tolerate violations of our sovereignty along any border, and certainly not the Lebanese border," Yaalon said.

Tensions ran high on Sunday overnight in the region of Naqoura along the border on the Blue Line where Israeli Defense Forces tossed flare bombs and operated high altitude flights.      

On Sunday overnight around 1 am, Israel troops combed the forest area of the Lebanese side by using medium weapons.

Conflicting reports emerged late on Sunday about the shooting that took place near the Ras Naqoura border crossing.       

The National News Agency confirmed the shooting by a member of the Lebanese army. It was not clear why the soldier opened fire. The Lebanese army has opened fire in the past after saying Israeli soldiers had tried to infiltrate into Lebanon.
         
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An Israeli soldier has been killed by a Lebanese army sniper as he drove along the border, the Israeli military said, and the incident has drawn Israeli threats of retaliation.         

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said Israel had protested "this outrageous breach of Israel's sovereignty" with UN peacekeeping forces and heightened its state of preparedness.         

"We will not tolerate aggression against the state of Israel, and maintain the right to exercise self-defense against perpetrators of attacks against Israel and its civilians," he said.        

In turn, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in statement that both sides were, "cooperating with the United Nations ... to ascertain the facts," and he urged both sides to exercise restraint.         

UNIFIL:

For his part, Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for UN forces in southern Lebanon, said the UN was informed of a "serious incident" along the border. He said the peacekeeping force UNIFIL was in contact with both the Lebanese and Israeli armies, and that they were cooperating.