Tuesday Aug. 3, 2010 12:51 PM (EST+7)
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EDAYSEH, Lebanon, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Israeli artillery shelled a Lebanese village on Tuesday, killing four people, after Lebanese Army troops fired warning shots at Israeli soldiers along the usually quiet but tense frontier, witnesses said.
Hezbollah's Manar television said that a high-ranking Israeli soldier was killed in the confrontation, but no word was forthcoming from Israeli officials.
U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon urged both sides to exercise maximum restraint after the border incident in an area where Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas fought a war four years ago.
Witnesses said the Israeli army fired at least seven artillery shells at the village of Edayseh.
It started when the Israelis wanted to cut a tree down inside Lebanon, the Lebanese army fired warning shots at them and they responded by shelling, the source said, adding the firing had stopped but tension was high.
I heard some shots and some artillery shells. But I don't know from which side, a Reuters witness at the scene said. I can see a fire in Edayseh. (UNIFIL) U.N. peacekeepers and army troops are in the area.
Israeli security sources said Israeli and Lebanese troops exchanged fire. The sources said Israeli army engineers came under fire from Lebanese soldiers while working along the frontier, and the troops shot back.
Israeli military engineering units maintain a security fence along the border with southern Lebanon, an area dominated by the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which waged war with Israel in 2006. (Reporting by Mariam Karouny and Jeffrey Heller)
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