Israel hits convoy fleeing south Lebanon, 7 dead

BEIRUT, Aug 12 (Reuters) Israeli aircraft fired rockets at a convoy of hundreds of cars carrying people fleeing southern Lebanon, killing at least seven and wounding 36, witnesses and medical sources said.

The Israeli army confirmed yesterday it carried out an air strike on the convoy, saying it had acted on the mistaken suspicion Hizbollah guerrillas were smuggling weapons in the vehicles and that it regretted any harm to non-combatants.

The army said a military inquiry concluded the convoy had been denied a request for permission to move but that it had set out anyway.

''The attack was carried out based on a suspicion. It was found to be incorrect,'' an army spokeswoman said.

Witnesses said the convoy, which left the Israeli-occupied town of Marjayoun earlier in the day, was targeted by at least one drone near the wine-making village of Kefraya in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

''The night sky suddenly lit and we heard an explosion towards the leading cars of the convoy. I first thought it was a blown tyre,'' said Reuters correspondent Karamallah Daher, who was in the convoy.

''Cars sped in every direction and some crashed into ditches near the road,'' said Daher, who counted five rockets.

Medical sources said at least seven people were killed, including a Red Cross worker.

About 3,000 civilians and 350 Lebanese soldiers and policemen left Marjayoun in the convoy a day after Israeli forces seized the area.

''CARS DESTROYED'' Several military and civilian cars were destroyed in the attack.

Most of the casualties were civilians, witnesses said.

The convoy broke up with drivers heading into villages in the area to hide.

The Lebanese security men had been evacuated from their Marjayoun barracks by UN peacekeepers after high-level contacts between Lebanese authorities and world powers to pressure Israel to let them leave, officials said.

The Israeli military said it had attacked while the vehicles were on a ''forbidden'' route previously used by Hizbollah to transport rockets and other weapons.

A military statement said the convoy left Marjayoun despite a curfew that had been placed on non-authorised vehicles moving south of the Litani river, which flows southwest across Lebanon, several days ago. Kefraya is 6 km north of the Litani.

Israeli forces pushed into the Marjayoun area on Thursday as part of a month-old campaign to drive Hizbollah guerrillas away from Lebanon's border with the Jewish state and to stop rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Fighting raged in other parts of southern Lebanon.

Hizbollah said its guerrillas killed and wounded several Israeli soldiers in a number of ambushes, mainly near the villages of Qantara and Rshaf. The Israeli army said one soldier was killed in fighting with Hizbollah fighters in Rshaf.

Israeli air strikes across Lebanon killed 22 people yesterday while Hizbollah rockets fired into northern Israel wounded seven people.

REUTERS BDP RK1105