[Iran Press TV Latest] Lebanese army chief cautions his forces against Israeli 'schemes' after Tel Aviv blamed Beirut for a terror strike on the Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands. Chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces Brigadier-General Jean Kahwaji urged the troops to encounter the maneuverings calling on them to be "firm with all those tampering with civil peace," Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star reported on Saturday.
He called for "more alertness on the southern border," where a self-professed al-Qaeda-affiliated group reportedly fired two Katyusha rockets into the northern part of the occupied territory.
The Israeli military responded by firing at least a dozen shells into southern Lebanon. Despite the appearance of a signed statement on a militant website claiming responsibility for the rocket attack, Tel Aviv filed a complaint with the United Nations against Beirut. Moreover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that he held the Lebanese government responsible.
The strikes, the third this year, were aimed at using south Lebanon as an "arena for the exchange of messages," the commander said, adding that the army and other security apparatus "should increase joint efforts to monitor the movements of terrorists and continue tracking them."
Kahwaji also demanded from the army "close cooperation with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon [UNIFIL] as part of the implementation of Resolution 1701." The resolution ended the July 2006 Israeli aggression on the Lebanese soil. The massive Israeli attack, which killed over a thousand, mostly Lebanese civilians, were thwarted by the Hezbollah resistance fighters.