Fighter bombers swooped four times to fire missiles at targets on the outskirts of Kfarshuba, Hebbariyeh, Slamiyeh and Kfarhamam near the Shebaa Farms, they said.

At the same time, militiamen of the Shiite fundamentalist movement Hezbollah traded artillery fire with Israeli troops.

Hezbollah pounded Israeli positions on the slopes of Mount Hermon with dozens of mortar bombs and 107 mm Katyusha rockets, police said earlier, in the first such action for several months.

An AFP correspondent saw a large cloud of black smoke rising from one Israeli position, known as Radar, that was the target of about 30 missiles. Two other army posts were also targeted.

The guerrilla attack followed a car bomb explosion that killed a Hezbollah member in southern Beirut on Saturday, which the group blamed on Israel.

Lebanese police, without reporting casualties, said the Israelis used heavy field artillery to strike at areas near several villages facing the Shebaa Farms, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

The area is claimed by Lebanon, with the consent of Syria.

WAR.WIRE