TEL AVIV, AUG 5, SPA -- Hezbollah fighters killed an Israeli soldier and wounded nine more in heavy fighting in southern Lebanon early Saturday, Israel said, as naval commandoes raided the coastal town of Tyre to eliminate the launching site for the militia's long-range rockets. Hezbollah mortars hit two vehicles of the engineering corps during a sweep of a village in the Taibeh area of eastern Lebanon, killing the soldier, the Israeli army said. Defense officials said a commando force staged an attack on Tyre, from where Israel believes the rocket was fired Friday toward the central Israeli town of Hadera. At 50 miles (75 kms) from the border, Hadera is thefarthest south Hezbollah rockets have penetrated. Eight soldiers were wounded after landing near Tyre from the sea before dawn Saturday, officials said. Two were in serious condition, the Associated Press reported. The army said the mission was to take out the launching sites of rockets that have plagued northern Israel for three weeks. It said several Hezbollah fighters were hit, but there was no further information on the success of the operation. In Beirut, Hezbollah said it repulsed the Israeli attack. Local Lebanese officials said a Lebanese soldier and a civilian were killed in the raid, which began when the commando force landed near an orange grove, cut a hole through a barbed wire fence and targeted the second floor apartment a second floor apartment in a building. Israel has acknowledged 45 soldiers killed in action since the start of the Lebanon conflict July 12. More than 2,500 rockets have showered on northern Israel, killing 30 civilians, injuring hundreds more, destroying property and scorching vast swaths of forests and fields. Eleven more rockets fell in the northern suburbs of Haifa early Saturday, and police said at least nine people were treated for shrapnel wounds.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/380822