Israeli jets strike Palestinian bases in Lebanon

LUCI, Lebanon, May 28 (Reuters) Israeli jets fired missiles at two Palestinian militant bases in Lebanon today, Lebanese and Israeli military officials said, hours after rockets fired into northern Israel wounded an Israeli soldier.

Witnesses saw columns of black smoke rising from a military base just outside Beirut and another in the eastern Bekaa Valley, both run by the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian-General Command (PFLP-GC).

Witnesses saw at least two casualties being carried out of the base near the eastern town of Luci, which consists of tunnels dug into a hillside close to the Syrian border.

Palestinian militants at Luci fired automatic rifles and anti-aircraft guns at the Israeli planes, while the Lebanese army said its anti-aircraft units responded at the PFLP-GC's large Naameh bunker near Beirut.

Israel said one of the bunkers was used as an arms store.

''Following the (rocket) attack today, we responded with air strikes against two terrorist targets in Lebanon. One of the targets was used to store weapons and ammunition,'' an Israeli army spokesman said.

ISRAEL TO LODGE COMPLAINT The exchange came two days after a senior Islamic Jihad official and his brother were killed in a car bombing in southern Lebanon that the Palestinian group blamed on Israel.

Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group, which controls the Lebanese side of the border, had also blamed Israel for the assassination and Islamic Jihad officials had sworn revenge.

It was not clear who fired the rockets into northern Israel on Sunday. Hizbollah had no immediate comment on that attack or the subsequent Israeli air strikes.

The top PFLP-GC official in Lebanon, Anwar Raja, said Palestinian commandos were based in the Luci bunker, which has been around for some 30 years, but that it was too early to comment on casualties.

''Israel used the rockets that were fired into northern Israel as a pretext to assault Lebanese sovereignty. This reveals the dangers that the Lebanese and Palestinians face from Israel,'' he told Reuters.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel planned to lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council over the rocket attack on its northern region.

''This attack demonstrates clearly the need to move expeditiously in implementing UN Security Council resolutions 1559 and 1680 that call for the disarming of all the armed militia in Lebanon,'' Regev said.

''As long as these extremist groups remain armed, they will be a threat to stability.'' REUTERS SY RK1430