Jerusalem: The Israeli military on Thursday released a map detailing what it says are nearly 1,000 underground bunkers, weapons storage facilities and monitoring sites built by the militant Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Many of the sites on the map are located south of the Litani River in Lebanon, the zone where Hezbollah is banned from keeping weapons under the UN-sponsored truce that ended Israel's summer 2006 war with the guerrilla group.
The military says Hezbollah has set up some 550 bunkers, 300 monitoring sites and 100 weapons storage facilities. The militant group, which controls the strongest armed force in Lebanon, could not immediately be reached for comment on the map.
Israel has for years accused Hezbollah of rearming with the help of Iran and Syria, setting up "rocket villages" in southern Lebanon.
The militant group sent nearly 4,000 rockets crashing into northern Israel during the 2006 war, using up much of its estimated stockpile. But Israel says Hezbollah has since replenished its arms stores with even more powerful weapons.
The Israel-Lebanon border has been tense but largely quiet since the war, which killed around 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis, according to official counts from each side.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, March 31, 2011, 14:29