Israel Widens Search for Pilot

BEIRUT — Israel beefed up its military presence in southern Lebanon today, pouring more troops into the region to search for a pilot captured last week when his jet was shot down, military sources said.

The sources in southern Lebanon said more Israeli tanks and troop carriers crossed the border into the Israeli-proclaimed “security zone,” a strip of Lebanese border territory manned by Israeli soldiers and Israel’s surrogate militia, the South Lebanon Army. In Beirut, meanwhile, a Muslim underground group threatened to retaliate if Israel harms three Palestinians arrested in a bloody grenade attack last week near Jerusalem’s Western Wall.