TYRE, Lebanon (AFP) — Lebanese soldiers and UN peacekeepers on Wednesday discovered five rockets in the south of the country five kilometres (three miles) from the Israeli border, the army and the UN said.
The katyusha rockets were found by a joint patrol of the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, in the Hamul valley inland from Naqura at the southern end of the country, an army spokesman told AFP.
"They were not ready for firing," the spokesman said, without saying whether the rockets were new or old.
Confirming the discovery, UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane told AFP: "There was also a launching pad and some electric wires.
"UNIFIL and Lebanese Armed Forces investigation teams are on the location and the investigation is ongoing," she said.
On January 8, during the Jewish state's assault on the Gaza Strip, four rockets fired from Lebanon fell on the north of Israel, injuring two women.
These isolated launches raised the prospect of a second front opening in the Gaza war and the Israeli army replied by firing several mortar rounds towards Lebanon.
A week later several more rockets landed on northern Israel, without causing injuries.
The Shiite Hezbollah movement, the Israeli army's opponent in a war in the summer of 2006, denied involvement in last month's rocket firing.
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