Israeli airstrikes kill 13 in south Lebanon, Lebanese sources say

BEIRUT, June 10 (Reuters) – Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 13 people on Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said, as Israel pressed its campaign against Hezbollah and the Iran-backed group claimed fresh attacks against Israeli forces in the south.

The dead included nine people killed in the village of Dayr Debba, 8 km (5 miles) east of the city of Tyre, the state-run National News Agency reported. Reuters footage showed vehicles ablaze in the southern city of Sidon after an Israeli airstrike.

More than three months since the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran ignited conflict around the Middle East, Lebanon remains a major frontline in the war.  

The Lebanon war sparked escalation in the wider conflict earlier this week, when Israel struck Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, prompting Iran to retaliate with a missile attack on Israel, which in turn struck Iran, before Israel and Iran halted attacks.

Almost 3,700 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli attacks since March 2, 730 of them women, children or medics, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, while authorities say some 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

Hezbollah entered the war on March 2, saying it was retaliating for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader at the start of the conflict. 

Since then, 28 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat in Lebanon, according to a Reuters tally of Israeli military announcements, while four civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks.

A Lebanese soldier died on Wednesday from wounds caused by an Israeli airstrike in the south on March 17, the Lebanese military said.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)