A roadside bomb exploded Thursday as an Israeli army patrol was passing in the Shabaa Farms, a disputed area on the Lebanese-Syrian borders occupied by Israel, Lebanese security sources said.
No group has yet claimed the bombing "which probably inflicted a number of casualties," they told AFP.
Lebanese police said smoke billowed into the sky behind the Israeli army position in Sammaqa in the mountainous Shebaa Farms.
Residents in the nearby village of Kfar Shouba told AFP that they heard machine-gun fire shortly after the explosion and that they saw an Israeli helicopter hovering over the region at low altitude.
The Lebanese Shiite fundamentalist Hizbollah kidnapped three Israeli soldiers in the Shabaa Farms in a guerrilla commando operation on October 7.
Hizbollah spearheaded the guerrilla war until Israel's troop pullout from southern Lebanon in May after 22 years of occupation -- MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (AFP)
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