BEIRUT, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Three Lebanese soldiers were injured on Saturday while dismantling unexploded ordnance in Zawtar al-Gharbiyah, the same southern Lebanese town where Israeli forces erected a new earth berm overnight in what residents called a violation of a "pilot-area" arrangement.
The Lebanese Army Command's Guidance Directorate said in a statement that three soldiers were injured, one moderately, during the dismantling operation. The army deployed in the town on July 21 as part of arrangements for "pilot areas" under a Lebanon-Israel framework agreement signed in late June.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported that an Israeli military force entered the town shortly after midnight, backed by several vehicles and a bulldozer, and erected an earth berm about 100 meters from the town square.
It also reported intermittent Israeli artillery shelling on wooded areas and elevated positions on the outskirts of the nearby town Nabatieh al-Fawqa from midnight until Saturday morning.
The incidents followed the seventh round of Lebanon-Israel negotiations held in Rome earlier this week to advance security arrangements along the border and implement the framework agreement, which provides for Lebanese army deployment in two "pilot areas" in southern Lebanon. ■
