BEIRUT: Hizbollah said today (June 11) that it targeted an Israeli military position following overnight strikes in eastern Lebanon that killed three of its fighters, hours after the Iran-backed group downed an Israeli drone.
A Hamas ally, Lebanon's Hizbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, with violence intensifying in recent weeks.
Hizbollah said today (June 11) that its fighters attacked a military position on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights "with dozens of Katyusha rockets", adding the move was "in response to the Zionist enemy attack that targeted the Bekaa region" in eastern Lebanon.
The Shiite Muslim movement announced the death of three fighters, while a source close to the group, requesting anonymity, said they were killed in east Lebanon's Hermel area.
Yesterday (June 10 ), Hezbollah said it had downed an Israeli Hermes drone over Lebanon, the latest of the type since February.
The Israeli military said that overnight its "fighter jets struck a military complex of... the logistical reinforcement unit of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation."
"The unit is used to smuggle weapons to and from Lebanon," it said in a statement, adding that it had hit two targets in eastern Lebanon's Baalbek area, a Hezbollah stronghold located in the Bekaa valley.
The Israeli army said it also struck in southern Lebanon overnight, adding that the strikes came after one of its drones was shot down on Monday.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said an "Israeli strike" targeted "a convoy of tankers entering Lebanon on the border with Syria."
He said at least three Syrians working with Hizbollah were killed, adding that the Lebanese militant group controls both sides of the frontier in the area where the strike hit.
Hizbollah for years has fought on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil conflict, which erupted in 2011.
Israel captured much of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.
More than eight months of cross-border violence has killed at least 462 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including almost 90 civilians, according to an AFP count.
On the Israeli side of the border, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army.
