HASBAYA, Lebanon -- Lebanese Muslim guerrillas Thursday detonated an explosive during a patrol of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army militia inside the border zone in southern Lebanon, killing at least one militiaman, militia and resistance sources said.
A squad of the Iranian-backed 'Islamic Resistance Movement' planted an explosive charge on the Meshnaqa-Maidoun road near the Christian village of Jezzine, 23 miles south of Beirut, a resistance movement communique said.
The communique said the blast killed or wounded all of the patrol members.
The SLA-run 'Voice of the South' radio station said one of its militiaman was killed in the bomb attack.
The radio broadcast from inside Israel's self-declared security zone said an SLA patrol Wednesday dismantled an explosive attached to mines and anti-tank rockets in the eastern sector of the border zone.
Later Thursday, Israeli troops prevented a United Nations Observers team from entering the village of Tallouseh inside the border enclave to inspect the conditions of some 850 residents.
Sources of the U.N. Interim Force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) said the team returned to the headquarters of the peacekeeping force in the border town of Naqoura and contacted the Israeli command protesting the measure.
The U.N. move came a day after resistance guerrillas attacked a joint SLA-Israeli patrol on the Tallouseh road, killing one SLA militiaman and wounding five others.
Israeli besieged the village after the attack, arrested inhabitants for interrogation and searched houses.
Israel established the 9-mile security zone after it withdrew the bulk of its troops in 1985 to curb cross-border guerrilla infiltration attempts. The 2,500-strong SLA militia and some 1,000 Israeli military personnel patrol the border zone.
