Israel enters Lebanese airspace

BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 20 (UPI) -- Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace by dispatching reconnaissance planes over the southern portions of the nation, the military said.

The Lebanese military reported Israeli reconnaissance planes circled Naqoura near the southern border with Israel, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reports, citing Arabic-language accounts from Lebanon.

Naqoura serves as the headquarters for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, which is charged with monitoring border activity among other things.

Israel and paramilitary forces under the authority of Hezbollah clashed for more than a month in 2006. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the conflict, calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, leaving a U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, active along the border regions.

Several UNIFIL troops were injured in weekend skirmishes allegedly related to the explosion of a weapons depot linked to Hezbollah.

Lebanon, meanwhile, has lodged several complaints to the United Nations regarding violations of U.N. resolutions.

This is at least the second complaint raised by the Lebanese military regarding Israeli violations of its airspace.