Lebanese army dismantles rockets aimed at Israel - sources

KFAR SHUBA, Lebanon (Reuters) - The Lebanese army dismantled two rockets in southern Lebanon on Monday that security sources said were aimed towards Israel, which is launching air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The unfired rockets, on launchers, were found in the town of Halta and were about 1 km from an Israeli military site on Mount Hermon. They appeared to have put in the area since the offensive on Gaza began last week, the security sources said.

Lebanese soldiers surrounded the area around the intended launch site and cut off several nearby roads, according to a Reuters journalist in the area.

The sources gave no information as to who put the rockets there.

The Israeli-Lebanese border has been largely quiet in recent years, though rockets were fired over the border in two incidents last November and December, with only one casualty reported.

Southern Lebanon is home to several Palestinian groups, some of them militant, who may have wanted to respond to the violence between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

There have also been concerns of a possible spillover of tension from the revolt in neighbouring Syria against President Bashar al-Assad, and from a stiffening of Western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

Iran is the main backer of the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006. Hezbollah has not commented on reports of rockets being found.

(Reporting by Karamallah Daher; Editing by Alison Williams)