Two Lebanese soldiers injured by Israeli smoke grenades — army

BEIRUT — Israeli soldiers along the border with Lebanon on Tuesday targeted a Lebanese army patrol with smoke grenades, injuring two soldiers and sparking a large fire, the Lebanese army said.

“An intelligence directorate patrol inspecting a piece of land [near the town of Rmeich] was attacked by an enemy Israeli patrol that threw six smoke grenades and wounded two soldiers,” the army said.

Another army patrol, along with a liaison team from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and a fire brigade crew quickly deployed to the area and extinguished the fire on the Lebanese side, it added.

Israel occupied parts of Lebanon for 22 years until 2000, and the Iran-backed Hizbollah movement claimed credit for its withdrawal following persistent guerrilla attacks.

The two countries are still technically at war but incidents such as Tuesday’s are rare.

A UN-demarcated “Blue Line” drawn up after Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 serves as the a frontier between the two countries.

In July-August 2006, Israel fought a bloody war against Hizbollah that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

The Lebanese army deployed to the south after the 2006 war for the first time in decades.