By Jeffrey Heller and Sylvia Westall

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper were killed on Wednesday in an exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel, one of the most violent clashes between the two sides since a 2006 war.

The soldiers were killed when Hezbollah fired five missiles at a convoy of Israeli military vehicles on the frontier with Lebanon.

The peacekeeper, serving with a U.N. monitoring force in southern Lebanon, was killed as Israel responded with air strikes and artillery fire, a U.N. spokesman and Spanish officials said.

Hezbollah said one of its brigades in the area had carried out the attack, which appeared to be in retaliation for a Jan. 18 Israeli air strike in southern Syria that killed several Hezbollah members and an Iranian general.

"Those behind the attack today will pay the full price," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned later on Wednesday, in televised remarks as he met with security chiefs.

The Israeli military confirmed the deaths of the soldiers, saying they had been attacked while driving in unmarked civilian vehicles on a road next to the fence that marks the hilly frontier. Seven other soldiers were wounded.

Andrea Tenenti, spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which employs more than 10,000 troops, said the peacekeeper's death was under investigation.

The U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon urged all parties to refrain from any further detribalization of the situation, while Lebanon's prime minister said his country was committed to the U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war.

The 80-km (50-mile) frontier has largely been quiet since 2006, when Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in which 120 people in Israel and more than 500 in Lebanon were killed.

Since the end of the war with Hamas militants in Gaza last year, Israel has warned of frictions on the northern border and the possibility that Hezbollah might dig tunnels to infiltrate Israel. In recent days it has moved more troops and military equipment into the area.

"STATEMENT NUMBER ONE"

A retired Israeli army officer, Major-General Israel Ziv, said he believed Wednesday's assault was an attempt by Hezbollah to draw Israel more deeply into the war in Syria, where Hezbollah is fighting alongside forces loyal to President Assad.

"Israel needs to protect its interests but not take any unnecessary steps that may pull us into the conflict in Syria," he said.

Netanyahu, who faces a parliamentary election on March 17, said Israel was "prepared to act powerfully on all fronts".

He accused Iran of trying to establish a "terror front" via Hezbollah from Syria and said Israel was "acting aggressively and responsibly against this attempt". Iran is a major funder of Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group headed by Hassan Nasrallah.

In a communique, Hezbollah called Wednesday's operation "statement number one", indicating a further response to the Syrian incident was possible. Nasrallah is expected to announce the group's formal reaction to Israel's Jan. 18 air strike on Friday.

In Beirut, celebratory gunfire rang out after the attack, while residents in the southern suburbs of the city, where Hezbollah is strong, packed their bags and prepared to evacuate neighborhoods that were heavily bombed by Israel in 2006.

In Gaza, Palestinian militant groups praised Hezbollah. The United States said it condemned the Shi'ite group's "act of violence" and urged all parties to refrain from actions that could escalate the situation.

With an Israeli election looming and Hezbollah deeply involved in support of Assad in Syria, there would appear to be little interest in a wider conflict for either side.

Regional analysts said they did not expect events to spiral.

"Netanyahu most likely realizes that a prolonged military engagement in Lebanon could cost him the election," said Ayham Kamel and Riccardo Fabiani of the Eurasia Group.

"Instead, Israel will pursue limited actions targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, but the low-scale, tit-for-tat exchanges will not broaden into a wider war."

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell, Luke Baker and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, Laila Bassam and Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Julien Toyer in Madrid and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman; editing by Andrew Roche)

Reuters Videos
Video shows immediate aftermath of Hezbollah attack

MAJIDIYA (Lebanon) (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon's Hezbollah it will pay the "full price" after missiles killed two Israeli soldiers Wednesday in an attack that raised fears of another all-out war.

A Spanish UN peacekeeper was killed as Israel and Hezbollah exchanged artillery fire -- the most serious clashes between the bitter enemies in years -- following the attack by the Shiite militant group.

"Those behind today's attack will pay the full price," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying at a meeting with Israeli's top security brass Wednesday evening.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini appealed for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" as the UN Security Council called an emergency meeting from 2100 GMT to discuss the flare-up.

The two soldiers were killed when Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at a military convoy in an Israeli-occupied border area, the army said.

Seven other soldiers were wounded, but none were reported to have suffered life-threatening injuries.

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Israeli soldiers carry an injured comrade after an anti-tank missile hit an army vehicle in an occup …

Israel responded with "combined aerial and ground strikes" on southern Lebanon after the attack -- an apparent retaliation for a recent Israeli strike on the Golan Heights that killed senior Hezbollah members.

Lebanese security sources told AFP that Israeli forces had hit several villages along the border.

Clouds of smoke could be seen rising from Majidiya village, one of the hardest hit. There was no immediate information on casualties.

A 36-year-old Spanish corporal from the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon was killed in the exchange of fire, officials said.

It said the precise cause of the peacekeeper's death was "as yet undetermined" and urged all sides to show "maximum restraint to prevent an escalation".

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Smoke from Israeli shelling covers a United Nation Interim Force in Lebanon in the Lebanese border-t …

Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli military convoy "transporting several Zionist soldiers and officers."

- 'Very harsh' response -

"There were several casualties in the enemy's ranks," Hezbollah said.

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Israeli soldiers treat their comrades after an anti-tank missile hit an army vehicle in an occupied …

Israel said mortar fire was also aimed across the border at several military facilities. There were no casualties.

Hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel should respond to the attack "in a very harsh and disproportionate manner, as China or the US would respond to similar incidents."

Army spokesman Brigadier General Moti Almoz warned Israel was considering further action.

"This is not necessarily the last response," he wrote on Twitter.

Hezbollah's attack was hailed by the Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

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An Israeli howitzer is stationed near the border with Syria in the Golan Heights, on January 28, 201 …

"We affirm Hezbollah's right to respond to the Israeli occupation," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, while Jihad's Quds Brigade praised the attack as "heroic".

Israeli security sources said at least one house had been hit in the divided village of Ghajar, which straddles the border between Israel and Lebanon.

"Three houses were hit by rockets," said Hussein, 31, relaying what he had heard by telephone from relatives in the village of 2,000 inhabitants.

He said a number of villagers had been wounded but did not know how badly.

Other frantic family members argued with police to be allowed in to collect their children, who had been locked inside the village school for their own safety.

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A Hezbollah militant takes part in a military parade in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, on November …

- Building tensions -

Tension in the area had been building, especially after an Israeli air strike on the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general on January 18.

The day before the raid, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to retaliate against Israel for its repeated strikes on targets in Syria and boasted the Shiite militant movement was stronger than ever.

Israeli warplanes also struck Syrian army targets in the Golan Heights early on Wednesday, hours after rockets hit the Israeli-held sector.

During a Wednesday evening meeting with senior military and intelligence officials, Netanyahu sent a warning to the government of Lebanon and to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"The government of Lebanon and the Assad regime share responsibility for the consequences of attacks originating in their territory against the state of Israel," he said.

Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said Wednesday's attack was the "most severe" Israel had faced since 2006, when it fought a month-long war with Hezbollah that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Israel occupied parts of Lebanon for 22 years until 2000 and the two countries are still technically at war.

Wednesday's missile attack was on Israeli forces in the Shebaa Farms area, a mountainous, narrow sliver of land occupied by Israel since 1967.

The video shows Islamic State members standing in the streets of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, following an artillery barrage on the city by Kurdish Peshmerga forces. In front of the militants is seated a Kurdish soldier who is executed at the end of the video.

Prior to the Kurdish soldier's execution, the executioner delivers a message in Kurdish, which is subtitled into Arabic in the video.

"Know, oh Obama, that we will reach America. Know also that we will cut off your head in the White House and transform America into a Muslim province," the militant says a ccording to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The militant then continues his threat against other Western nations, saying: "And this is my message to France and its sister, Belgium. We advise you that we will come to you with car bombs and explosive charges and we will cut off your heads."

The video appeared to be a response by the Islamic State to a multitude of setbacks it has faced in the past week. On Jan. 26, Islamic State fighters withdrew from the Syrian-Kurdish city of Kobani after a failed four-month siege in which the militant group lost as many as 1,500 fighters.

Simultaneously, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces have started conducting operations aimed at dislodging the Islamic State from Mosul, the crown jewel of the group's domain in Iraq. Kurdish forces have launched rockets into Mosul in an attempt to target Islamic State militants, while US forces have regularly conducted airstrikes in the region outside the city.

In retaliation for the strikes, the Islamic State militants end their video by executing the Kurdish soldier.

The militants also include a warning for Kurdistan President Barzani: "This is one of your soldiers' fate, and every time you launch a missile, we will send you back the head of one of your soldiers."

Cuba's President Raul Castro listens during the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit in San Antonio de Belen in the province of Heredia January 28, 2015, in this handout courtesy of the Costa Rica Presidency. REUTERS/Costa Rica Presidency/Handout via Reuters

By Enrique Pretel

SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Cuba will not accept any interference from the United States, President Raul Castro said on Wednesday, warning that meddling in its internal affairs would make rapprochement between the two countries "meaningless."

His comments came after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, the highest-ranking U.S. government official to visit the island in nearly 40 years, last week met with dissidents a day after talks with Cuban government officials.

"Everything appears to indicate that the aim is to foment an artificial political opposition via economic, political and communicational means," Castro told a summit in Costa Rica.

"If these problems are not resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement between Cuba and the United States would be meaningless," he said.

However, Castro made it clear he was committed to the talks despite his concern that Washington might try to foment internal opposition within Cuba through greater telecommunications access and the internet.

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Cuba's President Raul Castro (C) arrives at the Juan Santamaria international airport in Alajuel …

He also urged U.S. President Barack Obama to use executive powers to ease a decades-long embargo against Cuba, saying Washington could extend measures like those announced for telecoms to other areas of the economy.

Obama's new policy specifically singled out telecoms in Cuba as an area that Washington is willing to allow U.S. companies to invest in, and for its part Havana has said it is ready to let that happen.

Castro reiterated that he has no plans to budge from Cuba's single party political system, although observers say that does not rule out the possibility that independent politicians might be given space to run for election in the future.

Castro said Obama's decision to hold a debate in Congress about eliminating the embargo was "significant", adding he was aware that ending it "will be a long and hard road".

The United States and Cuba held historic high-level talks in Havana last week that are expected to lead to the re-establishment of diplomatic ties severed by Washington in 1961.

Obama needs approval from the Republican-controlled Congress to completely normalize relations with Cuba, and Republicans such as Florida Senator Marco Rubio have opposed engagement as long as Cuba maintains a one-party state, represses dissidents and controls the media.

(Additional reporting by David Adams in Miami; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Gunna Dickson, Kieran Murray and Christian Plumb)

A BRIDGE TOO FAR FOR UKRAINE.