Hezbollah claims IED attack on Israeli border patrol

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said it had targeted an Israeli army border patrol with a bomb on Monday in an attack that prompted retaliatory fire from the Jewish state.

In a statement, Hezbollah said the attack in the disputed Shebaa Farms area along the Lebanon-Israel border "destroyed the armoured Hummer vehicle and injured those in it".

It said the attack was carried out by a group named for Samir Kantar, a Hezbollah militant killed in an Israeli strike near the Syrian capital in late December.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had vowed to take revenge for the death of Kantar, who was notorious for the 1979 murder of three Israelis, had been freed by the Jewish state in a prisoner exchange in 2008.

Israel confirmed that its forces had been targeted in the border area after the attack.

"IED detonated against IDF (Israeli army) vehicles in the area of Mt. Dov," wrote Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner in a tweet, referring to the disputed Shebaa Farms.

He said the army responded with "targeted artillery fire".

An Israeli army spokeswoman said there were no indications so far of injuries on the Israeli side.

Lebanese security sources said Israel responded with artillery fire into two villages adjacent to the Shebaa Farms, but had no immediate information on damage or injuries.

Photo: File picture of Israeli soldiers carrying an injured comrade after an antitank missile hit an army vehicle in an occupied area on the border with Lebanon (Wall Street Journal)