Zoom Image
Israeli soldiers: There has been no official statement so far
Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP
The situation in the Middle East is tense. Another incident could now escalate the situation. According to a pro-Iranian Palestinian group, five of its members have been killed in an explosion in eastern Lebanon. Ten others were injured, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said. The group blamed neighboring Israel for an "air strike."
Initially, there was no official statement from Israel. There, however, several media outlets, citing unnamed officials, reported that Israel was not involved. The Lebanese army and the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group also did not comment immediately.
According to the PFLP spokesman, the explosion took place in the morning at a base of the group in Kusaja, near the Syrian border. The PFLP is a group with close ties to the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and Shiite Iran, both of which regard Israel as an archenemy. The PFLP maintains bases in eastern Lebanon. Some of its members fought in the Syrian civil war together with Hezbollah in the ranks of government forces.
The group has carried out attacks against Israel in the past, including the hijacking of an El Al plane in 1968 and the machine-gun shooting of another plane at Zurich Airport in 1969. In 1970, she planted a bomb on a Swissair jet that exploded on a flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv, killing all 47 passengers on board.
PFLP threatens retaliation
The Damascus-based group also carried out attacks against Israel from its bases in Lebanon. During the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1985, the PFLP captured three Israeli soldiers and negotiated their release in exchange for more than 1,100 mostly Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian prisoners.
A PFLP official threatened Israel with revenge in an interview with the AP news agency. His group will retaliate "at the appropriate time." He added that the attack would not stop his group from "escalating the fight against the Israeli enemy."
asc/dpa/AP