TYRE, July 26: Hezbollah guerillas and advancing Israeli troops fought pitched battles at the entrance to a key town in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, killing eight Israeli soldiers and wounding 22.

Lebanese security sources said fierce fighting broke out when an Israeli contingent controlling a nearby hill tried to advance to the main entrance of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah stronghold four kilometres from the Israel-Lebanon border.

Guerillas ambushed the advancing force and fighting at close quarters ensued. Hezbollah sources said the advancing force was cut off and most of its vehicles were destroyed and soldiers hit.

The Hezbollah sources estimated 35 casualties had been inflicted on the force and said Israeli attempts to evacuate casualties had been foiled. “Our men can hear the screams of their wounded calling for help,” one source said.

The Israeli army said eight of its soldiers were killed and 22 wounded. Arabic media had said that as many as 13 soldiers died in the clash. The Israeli army said this figure was incorrect.

Israeli forces have been battling for days to take over Bint Jbeil since seizing the village of Maroun al-Ras, closer to the border, last week.

Hezbollah later said it attacked a concentration of Israeli forces in the outskirts of Maroun al-Ras, inflicting more Israeli casualties.

Israeli medics said several soldiers had been wounded in the village.

Israeli security sources estimate the number of Hezbollah dead at more than 130. Hezbollah has acknowledged losing 28 fighters.

‘DANGEROUS NEST’: Until the latest fighting, nine Israeli troops had been killed in the ground offensive inside southern Lebanon.

“We knew well that we are entering a dangerous nest and the nest needs to be taken care of slowly,” Major Tzvika Golan, Israeli spokesman, told journalists near a convoy of armoured vehicles parked by the road just inside Israel.

Asked how the Israeli army was progressing in Lebanon, Major Golan said: “Slowly, house by house, village by village. We are doing our best to take out all of Hezbollah.”

As the fighting raged in Bint Jbeil, Israeli jets launched more than 70 strikes on targets across southern Lebanon, killing one. Hezbollah fired more than 125 rockets into Israel, wounding dozens.

An Israeli air strike destroyed a building housing the office of Hezbollah’s top official in the south, Sheikh Nabil Kaouk.

He was not in the building but rescuers were searching the rubble to see if there were buried civilians.—Reuters