4 Hezbollah militants killed in Israeli raid

Israeli military sources said it was the Shia militant group which had sparked the fighting with an attack on Israeli troops but Hezbollah retorted that its fighters had only attacked the Israeli patrol after it strayed across the UN-demarcated frontier into Lebanese territory.

The flare-up came on the eve of Lebanon's independence day and amid turmoil in Israel following Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's call for early elections he plans to contest at the head of a new centrist party.