JERUSALEM, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Israel accused Hezbollah on Tuesday of building a facility for producing precision-guided missiles in Lebanon, amidst tensions between Israel and the Shiite armed group.
The Israeli military released a statement saying a site that Iran and Hezbollah had built a few years ago in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley, near the town of al-Nabi Sheeth, is being upgraded these days into a facility for converting and manufacturing precision-guided missiles.
The military also released satellite photos of the alleged site, charging that activities to facilitate the manufacture of the advanced missiles have been identified lately, "including the establishment of a dedicated assembly line for precision weapons and the transfer of sensitive and dedicated equipment."
The facility holds machines to manufacture the motors and the warheads of missiles with an accuracy of fewer than 10 meters, according to the statement.
The military said that Iran supports the Hezbollah efforts with supplying special machines and knowledge.
Recently, fearing Israel will strike the site, Hezbollah has moved some precious equipment from the compound to civilian sites in Beirut, the army said.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group and movement, has previously denied having manufacturing facilities for precision-guided missiles.
The statement came two days after a brief and intensive fire exchange between Israel and Hezbollah broke out in the wake of Israeli drones attack in the Shiite quarter of Beirut.
Precision-guided missiles have a navigation system that enables them to hit targets with an accuracy less than a few meters. Most of Hezbollah's arsenal consists of "statistic" inaccurate rockets of various ranges, according to Israel.
Israel and Hezbollah, which fought a bloody war in 2006, were on high alert over the past days in the wake of a series of Israeli airstrikes and in Syria and Lebanon.
