Hezbollah hits Israeli convoy, killing 2 soldiers

World Today

A missile fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an Israeli military convoy, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, killing two soldiers in an apparent retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel that killed many Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month. (AP Photo/Gili Eliyahu, Jinipix)

A missile fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an Israeli military convoy on Wednesday, killing two soldiers in an apparent retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel that killed six Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month.

The violence was the deadliest Hezbollah attack against Israeli forces since a 2006 war between the two sides.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would respond “forcefully” to the attack, and the military launched aerial and ground assault on Hezbollah positions, including at least 50 artillery shells according to Lebanese officials. A Spanish peacekeeper was killed in the border flare-up in southern Lebanon.

In a statement, Hezbollah said its fighters destroyed a number of Israeli vehicles that were carrying Israeli officers and soldiers and caused casualties among “enemy ranks.”

Hezbollah said the attack was carried out by a group calling itself the “righteous martyrs of Quneitra,” suggesting it was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on the Golan Heights on Jan. 18 that killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general.

Report complied with information from The Associated Press