Israel arrests 10 people for alleged spying

JERUSALEM -- Israeli security forces arrested a high-ranking army officer and nine other people on suspicion of spying for the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, the military and a lawyer for the officer said Wednesday.

Iran-backed Hezbollah is a bitter enemy of Israel, and the prospect of an Israeli officer cooperating with the guerrillas is almost unheard of.

Hezbollah often fired rockets at Israeli border villages during an 18-year war with Israeli troops who occupied a strip of southern Lebanon until May 2000.

The officer, a lieutenant colonel, was arrested on suspicion of providing Hezbollah with information on troop deployments in exchange for money and drugs, said Amnon Zichroni, the officer's lawyer. He said his client, whose name and role in the army have been banned from publication, denied the allegations.

In Beirut, Hezbollah officials had no comment.

The army officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they caught on to the spy ring when a cell phone belonging to one of the suspects was found on the body of a gunman who infiltrated into Israel from Lebanon last March. The gunman killed six people before being shot dead by soldiers.

No information was available on the other nine suspects.

Zichroni said his client was arrested a month and a half ago and would be charged before a military court on espionage and drug-dealing counts Monday.

In June, Israeli intelligence officers arrested an Israeli citizen of Lebanese descent on suspicion of spying for Hezbollah.

Though fighting in Lebanon ended with Israel's pullout, the border remains tense. Hezbollah disputes part of the border drawn by the United Nations and periodically shells it. Guerrillas also fire anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli planes, and fragments often fall on Israeli villages.