BEIRUT (AFP) - Former Christian warlord Samir Geagea has said that the four Iranian diplomats kidnapped in 1982 in Lebanon by members of his now defunct Lebanese Forces militia died at least 20 years ago.

Geagea told AFP that when he became leader of the Lebanese Forces militia in 1986, he learned that the four missing Iranians "for sure died" in captivity.

Tehran and the Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah have repeatedly claimed that the four missing Iranians are still alive and in Israel custody, after being handed over by the Lebanese Forces militia to then ally Israel.

The fate of the four has been one of the major points of indirect negotiations for a swap of prisoners and missing persons with Israel.

Taher Abu Hamdan
AFP

HALWA, Lebanon --  Clashes broke out on Wednesday between the Lebanese army and pro-Syrian Palestinian guerrillas near the Syrian border, wounding two people, and a soldier was detained for several hours, police said.

The soldier, Khaled Ibrahim, was snatched and then freed by guerrillas of the Damascus-based group Fatah-Intifada, which is founded by a Palestinian militant known as Abu Mussa, they said.

Abu Fadi Hammad, the Lebanon representative of Abu Mussa's group, said that one guerrilla was wounded in the clashes and that the detained soldier had been handed back to the army.

A senior army official said that a soldier was also wounded in the fighting in Wadi Al Asswad village of eastern Lebanon as troops and militants traded fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

The army, in a statement, said that troops retaliated after coming under fire from "Palestinian elements" during a patrol near "a newly set up position". Soldiers later dismantled the post and confiscated equipment, it said.

The statement did not mention the kidnapping but said that one soldier was "gravely wounded" in the clashes.

By Tali Caspi

MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights (Reuters) - Just as the sun sets, an explosion rocks a mountain fort close to Israel's heavily guarded border with Lebanon.

In years past, such a blast might have sent Israeli soldiers scrambling to fend off attack by Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

But this time the commotion is staged, and the only shooting is by film cameras for the last scene of "Beaufort," a drama about Israel's whirlwind 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon after a 22-year occupation.

For director Joseph Cedar, who spent much of his mandatory Israeli army service dodging Hizbollah ambushes in the so-called "security zone," making the movie was a catharsis of sorts.

"So many scenes are taken from my own experiences ... Just putting it on the screen is therapeutic," he told Reuters on the set, a Crusader-era castle chosen for its resemblance to the Beaufort Fort visible just across the Lebanese border.

"It's a story of any mountain in any battle. Soldiers died to capture it, died to protect it, and then found out its insignificance," Cedar said after re-enacting the demolition of the Israeli garrison at the fort by withdrawing troops.

by Salim Yassine
BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanese leaders have adjourned the latest round of reconciliation talks, still unable to find a consensus on the future of embattled pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

The leaders, following nearly four hours of roundtable talks at parliament house amid tight security measures, set the next round of negotiations for June 8 to continue discussions on the arms of the anti-Israeli Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah.

"Participants did not reach an agreement on the presidency, so they moved on to the remaining item on the table: the strategic defense policy" against potential Israeli dangers on Lebanon, parliament speaker Nabih Berri said Tuesday.

Berri told reporters that the next round of talks will take place on June 8 "because some colleagues have trips abroad and there are some holidays."