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SIDON(Lebanon): Israeli aircraft swooping low over the Mediterranean rocketed radical Palestinian guerrilla targets in seaside hills south of Beirut on Monday, security sources said.

They said two planes fired a dozen rockets into the Na'ameh hills 20 km (13 miles) from Beirut where the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) has bases.

There was no immediate report of casualties in the air raid, the 21st into Lebanon this year.

A spokesman for the Damascus-based PFLP-GC, which opposes the PLO-Israeli peace pact of 1993, told Reuters the Israeli jets fired rockets into a medical centre for the group in the hills.

"The planes are coming two at a time from over the sea. So far they launched three raids against a medical centre. We have no news on casualties yet," the spokesman said.

PFLP-GC fighters fired anti-aircraft weapons at the planes, which dropped thermal balloons to avoid guerrilla heat-seeking missiles, the sources said.

The air attack followed an exchange of fire overnight between other radical Palestinian guerrillas and an Israeli gunboat patrolling off south Lebanon.

The Black September 13 Brigades, a small PLO splinter group, claimed responsibility for firing at the Israeli boat. It said a guerrilla was wounded in an ensuing clash between the fighters and Israeli troops manning a seaside post in the area.-Reuter