Tuesday, 25 July 2006, 14:59 GMT 15:59 UK
US-based Human Rights Watch says Israel has used cluster bombs in civilian areas during its assault on Lebanon.
The group says an attack using the munitions on the village of Blida last week killed one person and injured 12.
It says the explosives - which disperse after impact - are "unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable", and should not be used in populated areas.
The Israeli military says their use is legal under international law, and that it is investigating the Blida incident.
'Outdated'
Critics say cluster bombs leave behind a large number of unexploded bomblets, which often kill long after they are fired.
"Our research in Iraq and Kosovo shows that cluster munitions cannot be used in populated areas without huge loss of civilian life," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The group believes that the use of cluster munitions in populated areas may violate the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks contained in international humanitarian law.
"They're not illegal per se, but certain attacks may be illegal," Washington representative Bonnie Docherty says.
"The law of war requires you to distinguish between soldiers and civilians, so when you are using an outdated, unreliable weapon in a populated area, it is likely that the attack violates international humanitarian law," she told the BBC.
"We have researchers on the ground who are investigating them and will investigate other claims related to cluster munitions, as well as other incidents in the ongoing conflict."
Phosphorous bombs claims
Separately, there have been reports in Lebanon that Israel is using phosphorous bombs in its offensive.
Doctors in hospitals in southern Lebanon say they suspect some of the burns they are seeing are being caused by phosphorous bombs.
Jawad Najem, a surgeon at the hospital in Tyre, told the Associated Press news agency that patients admitted on Sunday were burn cases that resulted from Israeli phosphorous incendiary weapons.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud made an oblique reference to their use in an interview with French radio.
"According to the Geneva Convention, when they use phosphorous bombs and laser bombs, is that allowed against civilians and children?" he said on Monday.
The Geneva Conventions ban the use of white phosphorous as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said arms used in Lebanon did not contravene international norms.
"Everything the Israeli Defence Forces are using is legitimate," the spokeswoman was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
The Israeli military says it is investigating the claims.
CRISIS in the MIDDLE EAST
Moderators: Cell_Leader, ikaotiki, Julstar
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theone666
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Israel bomb 'kills UN observers'
Tuesday, 25 July 2006, 21:58 GMT 22:58 UK
Four United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in an Israeli air strike on an observation post in southern Lebanon, the UN has said.
A bomb struck the post occupied by the peacekeepers of the Unifil force in the Khiam area, it said.
The attack came as Israel announced it would keep control over an area in southern Lebanon until a new international force could be deployed.
The force will be discussed at crisis talks to be held in Rome on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be at the talks after ending her tour of the Middle East on Tuesday.
More than 380 Lebanese and 42 Israelis have died in nearly two weeks of conflict in Lebanon, which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
Protest
The UN in Lebanon says the Israeli air force destroyed the observer post, in which four military observers were sheltering.
It said the four, from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, had taken shelter in a bunker under the post after it was earlier shelled 14 times by Israeli artillery.
A rescue team was also shelled as it tried to clear the rubble.
The UN has made urgent protests about the attacks.
Unifil has been operational in the border area since 1978 and is currently 2,000 strong.
In other military action:
The Israeli army said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Abu Jaafar, in fighting in southern Lebanon
Earlier the UN had said Israeli forces were now in control of the town of Bint Jbeil after fierce fighting and were moving on the village of Yaroun to the south
Israel resumed air raids on Beirut, with explosions heard in southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold
Hezbollah maintained fire of Katyusha rockets into Israel, killing a 15-year-old Arab-Israeli girl in the northern Israeli village of Maghar and striking Haifa with a large salvo
Hezbollah said 27 of its fighters had been killed as of Monday, but the Israeli military said it had killed "some dozens".
Truce call
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz had said a "security zone" in southern Lebanon would be maintained "under the control of our forces if there is not a multinational force".
He said: "We have no other option. We have to build a new security strip that will be a cover for our forces."
He did not specify whether Israeli troops would remain there but insisted they would "continue to control [Hezbollah]" in their operations.
Israeli government sources have estimated the width of the zone at anything from three to 10km (1.9-6.2 miles).
An unnamed Israeli official quoted by Reuters news agency said between 10,000 and 20,000 international peacekeepers would be needed.
BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson says Israeli details on the zone - and how it will be secured - are far from clear.
He says it is possible Mr Peretz is trying to put pressure on the international community to deliver the peacekeeping force.
The idea of the multinational force will be high on the agenda of foreign ministers who meet in Rome on Wednesday.
Earlier, Ms Rice had expressed concern for the suffering of "innocent people" in the fighting during her tour of the Middle East.
She met Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and later Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Abbas called for an immediate end to "aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank" and for an "immediate ceasefire" in Lebanon.
Ms Rice said the only solution was a sustainable and enduring peace.
Her words were reinforced later by US President George W Bush who said: "I support a sustainable ceasefire that will bring about an end to violence... Our mission and our goal is to have a lasting peace, not a temporary peace."
In his meeting with Ms Rice, Mr Olmert said he was "very conscious" of the humanitarian needs of Lebanon's civilians, but insisted Israel was defending itself against terrorism.
Ms Rice highlighted the need for Israel to consider the humanitarian needs of both Lebanon and the Palestinian people and the need for a durable peace.
She said: "It is time for a new Middle East, it is time to say to those who do not want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail; they will not."
Four United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in an Israeli air strike on an observation post in southern Lebanon, the UN has said.
A bomb struck the post occupied by the peacekeepers of the Unifil force in the Khiam area, it said.
The attack came as Israel announced it would keep control over an area in southern Lebanon until a new international force could be deployed.
The force will be discussed at crisis talks to be held in Rome on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be at the talks after ending her tour of the Middle East on Tuesday.
More than 380 Lebanese and 42 Israelis have died in nearly two weeks of conflict in Lebanon, which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
Protest
The UN in Lebanon says the Israeli air force destroyed the observer post, in which four military observers were sheltering.
It said the four, from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, had taken shelter in a bunker under the post after it was earlier shelled 14 times by Israeli artillery.
A rescue team was also shelled as it tried to clear the rubble.
The UN has made urgent protests about the attacks.
Unifil has been operational in the border area since 1978 and is currently 2,000 strong.
In other military action:
The Israeli army said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Abu Jaafar, in fighting in southern Lebanon
Earlier the UN had said Israeli forces were now in control of the town of Bint Jbeil after fierce fighting and were moving on the village of Yaroun to the south
Israel resumed air raids on Beirut, with explosions heard in southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold
Hezbollah maintained fire of Katyusha rockets into Israel, killing a 15-year-old Arab-Israeli girl in the northern Israeli village of Maghar and striking Haifa with a large salvo
Hezbollah said 27 of its fighters had been killed as of Monday, but the Israeli military said it had killed "some dozens".
Truce call
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz had said a "security zone" in southern Lebanon would be maintained "under the control of our forces if there is not a multinational force".
He said: "We have no other option. We have to build a new security strip that will be a cover for our forces."
He did not specify whether Israeli troops would remain there but insisted they would "continue to control [Hezbollah]" in their operations.
Israeli government sources have estimated the width of the zone at anything from three to 10km (1.9-6.2 miles).
An unnamed Israeli official quoted by Reuters news agency said between 10,000 and 20,000 international peacekeepers would be needed.
BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson says Israeli details on the zone - and how it will be secured - are far from clear.
He says it is possible Mr Peretz is trying to put pressure on the international community to deliver the peacekeeping force.
The idea of the multinational force will be high on the agenda of foreign ministers who meet in Rome on Wednesday.
Earlier, Ms Rice had expressed concern for the suffering of "innocent people" in the fighting during her tour of the Middle East.
She met Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and later Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Abbas called for an immediate end to "aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank" and for an "immediate ceasefire" in Lebanon.
Ms Rice said the only solution was a sustainable and enduring peace.
Her words were reinforced later by US President George W Bush who said: "I support a sustainable ceasefire that will bring about an end to violence... Our mission and our goal is to have a lasting peace, not a temporary peace."
In his meeting with Ms Rice, Mr Olmert said he was "very conscious" of the humanitarian needs of Lebanon's civilians, but insisted Israel was defending itself against terrorism.
Ms Rice highlighted the need for Israel to consider the humanitarian needs of both Lebanon and the Palestinian people and the need for a durable peace.
She said: "It is time for a new Middle East, it is time to say to those who do not want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail; they will not."
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1434
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Israel Resumes Strikes Against Beirut
By HAMZA HENDAWI, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 25) - Beirut was pounded by new airstrikes Tuesday as the two-week-old crisis showed no signs of letting up, despite frantic diplomatic efforts. At least four heavy blasts were heard, the first Israeli strikes in the capital in nearly two days. A gray cloud billowed up from the southern district, a Hezbollah stronghold that has been heavily bombarded.
Al-Jazeera television said 20 Israeli rockets hit the Dahiyah neighborhood as a quick succession of blasts set off car alarms in central Beirut, miles away, and sirens were heard. More, smaller explosions followed.
In other developments, Israeli troops sealed off a Hezbollah stronghold, and warplanes killed six people in a market city in southern Lebanon. Also, guerrillas fired rockets at northern Israel, killing a girl.
Outlining the scope of the Israeli campaign for the first time, a senior army commander said Israel would only encircle Lebanese towns and villages near the border and did not plan a deeper push into the country.
"The intention is to deal with the Hezbollah infrastructure that is within reach," Col. Hemi Livni, who commands troops in the western sector of southern Lebanon, told Israel Army Radio. "That means in southern Lebanon, not going beyond that."
President Bush expressed concern for the civilians killed and harmed by Israeli bombs, but stopped short of calling for an immediate cease-fire that might not last.
"I support a sustainable cease-fire that will bring about an end to violence," Bush said.
Rice, in Israel on the second leg of a Middle East tour, maintained the Bush administration's position that a cease-fire must come with conditions that make an enduring peace for the region.
"I have no doubt there are those who wish to strangle a democratic and sovereign Lebanon in its crib," Rice said before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. "We, of course, also urgently want to end the violence."
Olmert welcomed Rice warmly and vowed that "Israel is determined to carry on this fight against Hezbollah." He said his government "will not hesitate to take severe measures against those who are aiming thousands of rockets and missiles against innocent civilians for the sole purpose of killing them."
Rice also met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and told him that while she and other allies are engaged in resolving the situation in Lebanon, the U.S. has not forgotten the Palestinians' plight.
At a meeting that included about a dozen U.S. and Palestinian officials, but no Hamas representatives, Rice and Abbas talked about getting additional aid to the debt-laden Palestinian government as well as the status of an Israeli soldier captured last month by Hamas-linked militants.
Olmert later said Israel has the "stamina for a long struggle" and is determined to defeat the Islamic militant group.
The violence looked likely to drag on with tough ground fighting as Israeli forces try to move village to village near the border, facing well-armed, determined Islamic militant guerrillas who have been digging in for years.
The U.S., which is pushing for the deployment of international and Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah attacks on Israel, has angered many allies with its support of Israel and resistance to calls for an immediate cease-fire to the hostilities that began with a July 12 Hezbollah attack that killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two.
Arabs will insist on an immediate cease-fire and for the Lebanese government to take control over the militant Hezbollah at an international meeting to be held in Rome on Wednesday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Illah al-Khatib said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose nation is a major backer of Hezbollah and a sworn enemy of Israel, said the fighting could trigger "a hurricane" of broader fighting in the Middle East.
German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said a cease-fire must be in place before any international troops are sent to Lebanon. Israel has suggested it would accept an international force -- preferably from NATO -- to ensure the peace in southern Lebanon, but Jung said after meeting his French and Polish counterparts that it was too early to say if the alliance, or a European Union force, could be put in place.
A top Hamas official in Syria said Israeli soldiers held by Hamas and Hezbollah will only be released as part of a prisoner swap.
The official, Mohammad Nazal, also raised the possibility of teaming up with Hezbollah to negotiate terms that would lead to the release of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel in exchange for the three Israeli soldiers -- two held by Hezbollah and one by Hamas.
About 300 Americans and 100 Russians, meanwhile, were feared stranded in the heart of Lebanon's war zone after a ship evacuating foreign nationals from the area left the hard-hit southern port of Tyre on Monday evening. U.S. officials also said the last scheduled evacuations of Americans from Lebanon would happen Wednesday.
At the front Tuesday, an Israeli military official said troops had surrounded Bint Jbail, a town that has symbolic importance to Hezbollah as one of the centers of resistance to the Israeli occupation 1982-2000.
Israeli forces have seized some houses on the outskirts of the hilltop town since beginning the assault Monday, but do not yet control Bint Jbail, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as a press statement had not been issued.
Up to 200 Hezbollah guerrillas are believed to be defending the town, which lies about 2 1/2 miles north of the Israeli border. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reported the fighters were mounting a strong defense against elite Israeli troops who were trying to advance under "heavy bombardment."
In a pre-dawn raid, Israeli warplanes destroyed two neighboring houses in Nabatiyeh, which lies 16 miles north of Bint Jbail and has been heavily bombarded in the past few days.
In one house, a man and his wife and their son were killed, said the couple's daughter, Shireen Hamza, who survived. Three men died in the other house, she said.
While buried under the rubble for 15 minutes, "I just kept screaming, telling my parents to stay alive until help comes," she said. "My father kept saying to me in a weak voice, 'Shireen, stay awake. Don't sleep.'"
Security officials said seven people were killed in the blast. But Nabatiyeh Hospital received six bodies from the strike, said Dr. Marwan Ghandour.
At least 70 rockets were fired at northern Israel, and a teenage girl was killed and three other people were injured in the Arab town of Maghar.
One rocket fired at the Israeli port city of Haifa hit a bus, another hit a house and two reportedly struck close to a hospital, injuring five people, witnesses and doctors said. One man died of a heart attack while running to a bomb shelter, Israel Radio said.
Rockets also hit the towns of Kiryat Shemona, Nahariya, Tiberias, Acre and Safed.
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres appealed to the Lebanese people to disarm Hezbollah, and he spoke of seeing "the tough scenes from Lebanon, of your women and children fleeing these days on roads that lead to the unknown."
"As soon as the war ends, you will find in us what we really are, pursuers of peace, seekers of peace, seekers of hope," Peres said. "There is not any conflict between Israel and Lebanon."
He said the Israeli and Lebanese prime ministers could easily solve their countries' differences if they were to meet.
Israel's death toll in the conflict stands at 42, including 24 soldiers and 18 civilians, most killed by hundreds of rockets fired by Hezbollah.
At least 391 people have been killed and 1,596 wounded in Lebanon, according to Lebanese security officials. Among them are 20 Lebanese soldiers and at least 11 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Israeli Brig. Gen. Udi also said Israel has destroyed 100-150 rocket launchers, adding that he couldn't say how many of Hezbollah's approximately 12,000 rockets have been destroyed. He also said "dozens" of Hezbollah fighters have been killed.
Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, told The Associated Press that 25 of its fighters had been killed as of Monday, including 17 in ground fighting this week -- raising the previously announced toll.
Humanitarian efforts continued, and Olmert said Israel will allow the opening of safe passages for transporting aid to all areas of Lebanon.
7/25/2006 13:38:18
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 25) - Beirut was pounded by new airstrikes Tuesday as the two-week-old crisis showed no signs of letting up, despite frantic diplomatic efforts. At least four heavy blasts were heard, the first Israeli strikes in the capital in nearly two days. A gray cloud billowed up from the southern district, a Hezbollah stronghold that has been heavily bombarded.
Al-Jazeera television said 20 Israeli rockets hit the Dahiyah neighborhood as a quick succession of blasts set off car alarms in central Beirut, miles away, and sirens were heard. More, smaller explosions followed.
In other developments, Israeli troops sealed off a Hezbollah stronghold, and warplanes killed six people in a market city in southern Lebanon. Also, guerrillas fired rockets at northern Israel, killing a girl.
Outlining the scope of the Israeli campaign for the first time, a senior army commander said Israel would only encircle Lebanese towns and villages near the border and did not plan a deeper push into the country.
"The intention is to deal with the Hezbollah infrastructure that is within reach," Col. Hemi Livni, who commands troops in the western sector of southern Lebanon, told Israel Army Radio. "That means in southern Lebanon, not going beyond that."
President Bush expressed concern for the civilians killed and harmed by Israeli bombs, but stopped short of calling for an immediate cease-fire that might not last.
"I support a sustainable cease-fire that will bring about an end to violence," Bush said.
Rice, in Israel on the second leg of a Middle East tour, maintained the Bush administration's position that a cease-fire must come with conditions that make an enduring peace for the region.
"I have no doubt there are those who wish to strangle a democratic and sovereign Lebanon in its crib," Rice said before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. "We, of course, also urgently want to end the violence."
Olmert welcomed Rice warmly and vowed that "Israel is determined to carry on this fight against Hezbollah." He said his government "will not hesitate to take severe measures against those who are aiming thousands of rockets and missiles against innocent civilians for the sole purpose of killing them."
Rice also met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and told him that while she and other allies are engaged in resolving the situation in Lebanon, the U.S. has not forgotten the Palestinians' plight.
At a meeting that included about a dozen U.S. and Palestinian officials, but no Hamas representatives, Rice and Abbas talked about getting additional aid to the debt-laden Palestinian government as well as the status of an Israeli soldier captured last month by Hamas-linked militants.
Olmert later said Israel has the "stamina for a long struggle" and is determined to defeat the Islamic militant group.
The violence looked likely to drag on with tough ground fighting as Israeli forces try to move village to village near the border, facing well-armed, determined Islamic militant guerrillas who have been digging in for years.
The U.S., which is pushing for the deployment of international and Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah attacks on Israel, has angered many allies with its support of Israel and resistance to calls for an immediate cease-fire to the hostilities that began with a July 12 Hezbollah attack that killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two.
Arabs will insist on an immediate cease-fire and for the Lebanese government to take control over the militant Hezbollah at an international meeting to be held in Rome on Wednesday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Illah al-Khatib said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose nation is a major backer of Hezbollah and a sworn enemy of Israel, said the fighting could trigger "a hurricane" of broader fighting in the Middle East.
German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said a cease-fire must be in place before any international troops are sent to Lebanon. Israel has suggested it would accept an international force -- preferably from NATO -- to ensure the peace in southern Lebanon, but Jung said after meeting his French and Polish counterparts that it was too early to say if the alliance, or a European Union force, could be put in place.
A top Hamas official in Syria said Israeli soldiers held by Hamas and Hezbollah will only be released as part of a prisoner swap.
The official, Mohammad Nazal, also raised the possibility of teaming up with Hezbollah to negotiate terms that would lead to the release of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel in exchange for the three Israeli soldiers -- two held by Hezbollah and one by Hamas.
About 300 Americans and 100 Russians, meanwhile, were feared stranded in the heart of Lebanon's war zone after a ship evacuating foreign nationals from the area left the hard-hit southern port of Tyre on Monday evening. U.S. officials also said the last scheduled evacuations of Americans from Lebanon would happen Wednesday.
At the front Tuesday, an Israeli military official said troops had surrounded Bint Jbail, a town that has symbolic importance to Hezbollah as one of the centers of resistance to the Israeli occupation 1982-2000.
Israeli forces have seized some houses on the outskirts of the hilltop town since beginning the assault Monday, but do not yet control Bint Jbail, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as a press statement had not been issued.
Up to 200 Hezbollah guerrillas are believed to be defending the town, which lies about 2 1/2 miles north of the Israeli border. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reported the fighters were mounting a strong defense against elite Israeli troops who were trying to advance under "heavy bombardment."
In a pre-dawn raid, Israeli warplanes destroyed two neighboring houses in Nabatiyeh, which lies 16 miles north of Bint Jbail and has been heavily bombarded in the past few days.
In one house, a man and his wife and their son were killed, said the couple's daughter, Shireen Hamza, who survived. Three men died in the other house, she said.
While buried under the rubble for 15 minutes, "I just kept screaming, telling my parents to stay alive until help comes," she said. "My father kept saying to me in a weak voice, 'Shireen, stay awake. Don't sleep.'"
Security officials said seven people were killed in the blast. But Nabatiyeh Hospital received six bodies from the strike, said Dr. Marwan Ghandour.
At least 70 rockets were fired at northern Israel, and a teenage girl was killed and three other people were injured in the Arab town of Maghar.
One rocket fired at the Israeli port city of Haifa hit a bus, another hit a house and two reportedly struck close to a hospital, injuring five people, witnesses and doctors said. One man died of a heart attack while running to a bomb shelter, Israel Radio said.
Rockets also hit the towns of Kiryat Shemona, Nahariya, Tiberias, Acre and Safed.
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres appealed to the Lebanese people to disarm Hezbollah, and he spoke of seeing "the tough scenes from Lebanon, of your women and children fleeing these days on roads that lead to the unknown."
"As soon as the war ends, you will find in us what we really are, pursuers of peace, seekers of peace, seekers of hope," Peres said. "There is not any conflict between Israel and Lebanon."
He said the Israeli and Lebanese prime ministers could easily solve their countries' differences if they were to meet.
Israel's death toll in the conflict stands at 42, including 24 soldiers and 18 civilians, most killed by hundreds of rockets fired by Hezbollah.
At least 391 people have been killed and 1,596 wounded in Lebanon, according to Lebanese security officials. Among them are 20 Lebanese soldiers and at least 11 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Israeli Brig. Gen. Udi also said Israel has destroyed 100-150 rocket launchers, adding that he couldn't say how many of Hezbollah's approximately 12,000 rockets have been destroyed. He also said "dozens" of Hezbollah fighters have been killed.
Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, told The Associated Press that 25 of its fighters had been killed as of Monday, including 17 in ground fighting this week -- raising the previously announced toll.
Humanitarian efforts continued, and Olmert said Israel will allow the opening of safe passages for transporting aid to all areas of Lebanon.
7/25/2006 13:38:18
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
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U.N. Observers Killed by Israeli Airstrike
By LEE KEATH, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 25) - An Israeli bomb destroyed a U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon, killing two peacekeepers and leaving two others feared dead in what appeared to be a deliberate strike, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
The bomb made a direct hit on the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.
Annan issued a statement saying two U.N. military observers were killed with two more feared dead. Earlier, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the Security Council was informed that four officers were killed.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his "deep regret" for the deaths and denied the post was intentionally targeted.
Rescue workers were trying to clear the rubble, but Israeli firing "continued even during the rescue operation," Struger said.
U.N. officials said four observers were in the post when the bomb hit, and the building had been destroyed. Two bodies had been recovered and two were unaccounted for, apparently still in the rubble. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The victims included observers from Austria, a Canada, China and Finland, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media. It was not immediately known which were confirmed dead.
As reports of the attack emerged, Annan rushed out of a hotel in Rome following a dinner with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon," Annan said in the statement.
Annan said in his statement that the post had been there for a long time and was marked clearly, and was hit despite assurances from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would not be attacked.
"I call on the government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on U.N. positions and personnel must stop," Annan said in the statement.
Gillerman called the assertions "premature and erroneous."
"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the U.N. post," he said.
He said Israel would investigate the bombing. "We do not have yet information what caused this death: it could be the IDF (Israel's military) it could be Hezbollah," he said.
Since Israel launched a massive military offensive against Lebanon and Hezbollah guerrillas July 12, an international civilian employee working with UNIFIL and his wife have been killed in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern port city of Tyre.
Five UNIFIL soldiers and one military observer have also been wounded, Struger said.
Israeli troops sealed off a Hezbollah stronghold Tuesday and widened their control of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah fired at least 40 rockets on northern Israel Tuesday, killing a teenage girl and injuring at least 23 others, medics said. One of the rockets hit a Haifa bus and another hit an apartment building. Two of the rockets hit very close to a Haifa hospital.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other key Mideast players gathered in Rome for a meeting Wednesday to discuss proposals for ending the fighting that has claimed more than 400 lives. Key issues were how to disarm Hezbollah and assemble an international peacekeeping force to enforce the peace along the Israel-Lebanon frontier.
Tuesday marked a month since the start of what is now a two-front war between Israel and Islamic militants. On June 25, an Israeli soldier was captured by Hamas militants in Gaza, prompting an Israeli offensive there. Two weeks into that flare-up, Hezbollah snatched the two other soldiers.
In that month, the crisis has spiraled far beyond anyone's imagining.
Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, told The Associated Press here that the guerrilla's leadership had not expected a massive offensive when it snatched the two Israeli soldiers.
"The truth is - let me say this clearly - we didn't even expect (this) response ... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," he said.
Instead, he said Hezbollah had thought Israel would respond to the soldiers' capture by snatching Hezbollah leaders in commando raids and that negotiations for a swap would start, giving Hezbollah the chance to try to win the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.
He called the Israeli assault "unjustified" and said Hezbollah would not lay down its weapons.
Israel and the United States say their ultimate aim is to fundamentally reshape Lebanon to end Hezbollah's presence by the border, strengthen democracy in the country and ensure lasting peace with Israel. In the process, Lebanon has been ravaged, with hundreds killed, nearly a half-million driven from their homes and vast damage to roads and bridges.
7/25/2006 18:34:27 EST
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 25) - An Israeli bomb destroyed a U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon, killing two peacekeepers and leaving two others feared dead in what appeared to be a deliberate strike, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
The bomb made a direct hit on the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.
Annan issued a statement saying two U.N. military observers were killed with two more feared dead. Earlier, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the Security Council was informed that four officers were killed.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his "deep regret" for the deaths and denied the post was intentionally targeted.
Rescue workers were trying to clear the rubble, but Israeli firing "continued even during the rescue operation," Struger said.
U.N. officials said four observers were in the post when the bomb hit, and the building had been destroyed. Two bodies had been recovered and two were unaccounted for, apparently still in the rubble. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The victims included observers from Austria, a Canada, China and Finland, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media. It was not immediately known which were confirmed dead.
As reports of the attack emerged, Annan rushed out of a hotel in Rome following a dinner with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon," Annan said in the statement.
Annan said in his statement that the post had been there for a long time and was marked clearly, and was hit despite assurances from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would not be attacked.
"I call on the government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on U.N. positions and personnel must stop," Annan said in the statement.
Gillerman called the assertions "premature and erroneous."
"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the U.N. post," he said.
He said Israel would investigate the bombing. "We do not have yet information what caused this death: it could be the IDF (Israel's military) it could be Hezbollah," he said.
Since Israel launched a massive military offensive against Lebanon and Hezbollah guerrillas July 12, an international civilian employee working with UNIFIL and his wife have been killed in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern port city of Tyre.
Five UNIFIL soldiers and one military observer have also been wounded, Struger said.
Israeli troops sealed off a Hezbollah stronghold Tuesday and widened their control of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah fired at least 40 rockets on northern Israel Tuesday, killing a teenage girl and injuring at least 23 others, medics said. One of the rockets hit a Haifa bus and another hit an apartment building. Two of the rockets hit very close to a Haifa hospital.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other key Mideast players gathered in Rome for a meeting Wednesday to discuss proposals for ending the fighting that has claimed more than 400 lives. Key issues were how to disarm Hezbollah and assemble an international peacekeeping force to enforce the peace along the Israel-Lebanon frontier.
Tuesday marked a month since the start of what is now a two-front war between Israel and Islamic militants. On June 25, an Israeli soldier was captured by Hamas militants in Gaza, prompting an Israeli offensive there. Two weeks into that flare-up, Hezbollah snatched the two other soldiers.
In that month, the crisis has spiraled far beyond anyone's imagining.
Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, told The Associated Press here that the guerrilla's leadership had not expected a massive offensive when it snatched the two Israeli soldiers.
"The truth is - let me say this clearly - we didn't even expect (this) response ... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," he said.
Instead, he said Hezbollah had thought Israel would respond to the soldiers' capture by snatching Hezbollah leaders in commando raids and that negotiations for a swap would start, giving Hezbollah the chance to try to win the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.
He called the Israeli assault "unjustified" and said Hezbollah would not lay down its weapons.
Israel and the United States say their ultimate aim is to fundamentally reshape Lebanon to end Hezbollah's presence by the border, strengthen democracy in the country and ensure lasting peace with Israel. In the process, Lebanon has been ravaged, with hundreds killed, nearly a half-million driven from their homes and vast damage to roads and bridges.
7/25/2006 18:34:27 EST
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theone666
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Nine killed in Israeli Gaza raid
Wednesday, 26 July 2006, 08:50 GMT 09:50 UK
At least nine people have been killed in Israeli air raids in the east of Gaza City, including a three-year old girl, according to medical sources.
Several members of the governing Hamas organisation were also amongst those killed, said a Hamas spokesman.
The raids come amid Israeli efforts to release a soldier captured by Palestinian militants last month.
More than 120 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel began rescue efforts.
The attacks on Gaza have been overshadowed by fierce clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Several injured
In one strike, offices used by Hamas in Gaza City were also targeted.
About 30 Israeli tanks moved back into northern Gaza early Wednesday, backed by the air strikes.
According to the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Gaza, the tanks stopped short of Gaza City and the refugee camp of Jabaliya.
Palestinian witnesses said one person was killed and 10 wounded after a tank shell exploded near a group of people.
Thirty-seven people were hurt in the air raids, including 16 in critical condition, AP news agency quoted Dr Joma Saka, a spokesman for Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, as saying.
As well as attempting to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Israeli units operating in Gaza have been trying to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets into Israel.
At least nine people have been killed in Israeli air raids in the east of Gaza City, including a three-year old girl, according to medical sources.
Several members of the governing Hamas organisation were also amongst those killed, said a Hamas spokesman.
The raids come amid Israeli efforts to release a soldier captured by Palestinian militants last month.
More than 120 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel began rescue efforts.
The attacks on Gaza have been overshadowed by fierce clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Several injured
In one strike, offices used by Hamas in Gaza City were also targeted.
About 30 Israeli tanks moved back into northern Gaza early Wednesday, backed by the air strikes.
According to the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Gaza, the tanks stopped short of Gaza City and the refugee camp of Jabaliya.
Palestinian witnesses said one person was killed and 10 wounded after a tank shell exploded near a group of people.
Thirty-seven people were hurt in the air raids, including 16 in critical condition, AP news agency quoted Dr Joma Saka, a spokesman for Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, as saying.
As well as attempting to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Israeli units operating in Gaza have been trying to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets into Israel.
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
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Iranians volunteer to fight Israel
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Surrounded by yellow Hezbollah flags, more than 60 Iranian volunteers set off Wednesday to join what they called a holy war against Israeli forces in Lebanon.
The group -- ranging from teenagers to grandfathers -- plans to join about 200 other volunteers on the way to the Turkish border, which they hope to cross Thursday. They plan to reach Lebanon via Syria on the weekend.
Organizers said the volunteers are carrying no weapons, and it was not clear whether Turkey would allow them to pass.
A Turkish Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not say Wednesday if Turkey would allow them to cross. Iranians, however, can enter Turkey without a visa and stay for three months.
Iran says it will not send regular forces to aid Hezbollah, but apparently it will not attempt to stop volunteer guerrillas. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah's main sponsors.
"We are just the first wave of Islamic warriors from Iran," said Amir Jalilinejad, chairman of the Student Justice Movement, a nongovernment group that helped recruit the fighters. "More will come from here and other Muslim nations around the world. Hezbollah needs our help."
Military service is mandatory in Iran, and nearly every man has at least some basic training. Some hard-liners have more extensive drills as members of the Basiji corps, a paramilitary network linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
Other volunteers, such as 72-year-old Hasan Honavi, have combat experience from the 1980-88 war with Iraq.
"God made this decision for me," said Honavi, a grandfather and one of the oldest volunteers. "I still have fight left in me for a holy war."
The group, chanting and marching in military-style formation, assembled Wednesday in a part of Tehran's main cemetery that is reserved for war dead and other "martyrs."
They prayed on Persian carpets and linked hands, with their shoes and bags piled alongside. Few had any battle-type gear and some arrived in dress shoes or plastic sandals.
Some bowed before a memorial to Hezbollah-linked suicide bombers who carried out the 1983 blast at Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. servicemen. An almost simultaneous bombing killed 56 French peacekeepers.
Speakers praised Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and laid scorn on Muslim leaders -- including their own government -- for not sending battlefield assistance to Hezbollah since the battles erupted two weeks ago.
Even if the volunteers fail to reach Lebanon, their mobilization is an example of how Iranians are rallying to Hezbollah through organizations outside official circles.
Iran insists it is not directly involved in the conflict on the military side, but it remains the group's key pipeline for money. Iran has dismissed Israel's claims that Hezbollah has been supplied with upgraded Iranian missiles that have reached Haifa and other points across northern Israel.
"We cannot stand by and watch out Hezbollah brothers fight alone," said Komeil Baradaran, a 21-year-old Basiji member. "If we are to die in Lebanon, then we will go to heaven. It is our duty as Muslims to fight."
The group -- ranging from teenagers to grandfathers -- plans to join about 200 other volunteers on the way to the Turkish border, which they hope to cross Thursday. They plan to reach Lebanon via Syria on the weekend.
Organizers said the volunteers are carrying no weapons, and it was not clear whether Turkey would allow them to pass.
A Turkish Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not say Wednesday if Turkey would allow them to cross. Iranians, however, can enter Turkey without a visa and stay for three months.
Iran says it will not send regular forces to aid Hezbollah, but apparently it will not attempt to stop volunteer guerrillas. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah's main sponsors.
"We are just the first wave of Islamic warriors from Iran," said Amir Jalilinejad, chairman of the Student Justice Movement, a nongovernment group that helped recruit the fighters. "More will come from here and other Muslim nations around the world. Hezbollah needs our help."
Military service is mandatory in Iran, and nearly every man has at least some basic training. Some hard-liners have more extensive drills as members of the Basiji corps, a paramilitary network linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
Other volunteers, such as 72-year-old Hasan Honavi, have combat experience from the 1980-88 war with Iraq.
"God made this decision for me," said Honavi, a grandfather and one of the oldest volunteers. "I still have fight left in me for a holy war."
The group, chanting and marching in military-style formation, assembled Wednesday in a part of Tehran's main cemetery that is reserved for war dead and other "martyrs."
They prayed on Persian carpets and linked hands, with their shoes and bags piled alongside. Few had any battle-type gear and some arrived in dress shoes or plastic sandals.
Some bowed before a memorial to Hezbollah-linked suicide bombers who carried out the 1983 blast at Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. servicemen. An almost simultaneous bombing killed 56 French peacekeepers.
Speakers praised Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and laid scorn on Muslim leaders -- including their own government -- for not sending battlefield assistance to Hezbollah since the battles erupted two weeks ago.
Even if the volunteers fail to reach Lebanon, their mobilization is an example of how Iranians are rallying to Hezbollah through organizations outside official circles.
Iran insists it is not directly involved in the conflict on the military side, but it remains the group's key pipeline for money. Iran has dismissed Israel's claims that Hezbollah has been supplied with upgraded Iranian missiles that have reached Haifa and other points across northern Israel.
"We cannot stand by and watch out Hezbollah brothers fight alone," said Komeil Baradaran, a 21-year-old Basiji member. "If we are to die in Lebanon, then we will go to heaven. It is our duty as Muslims to fight."
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theone666
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High death toll in Gaza clashes
Wednesday, 26 July 2006, 20:36 GMT 21:36 UK
Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed 23 Palestinians, including several children, witnesses and medical sources say.
At least 11 militants were among the dead, but many civilians were also killed, and about 70 people were hurt.
The raids come amid Israeli efforts to release a soldier captured by Palestinian militants last month.
About 140 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its offensive.
The attacks on Gaza have been overshadowed by fierce clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Girls killed
Israeli air strikes began early on Wednesday and were backed by up to 30 tanks and other ground forces.
A military spokesman said the air force had targeted "armed gunmen" east of Gaza City as troops mounted a fresh incursion on the city's borders, the AFP news agency reported.
According to the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Gaza, the tanks stopped short of Gaza City and the refugee camp of Jabaliya.
In one strike, offices used by Hamas in Gaza City were also targeted. There were reports that several Hamas members died, plus at least one militant from the Popular Resistance Committees group.
Three girls, including one infant, were among the dead, Palestinians said.
As well as attempting to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Israeli units operating in Gaza have been trying to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets into Israel.
Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed 23 Palestinians, including several children, witnesses and medical sources say.
At least 11 militants were among the dead, but many civilians were also killed, and about 70 people were hurt.
The raids come amid Israeli efforts to release a soldier captured by Palestinian militants last month.
About 140 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its offensive.
The attacks on Gaza have been overshadowed by fierce clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Girls killed
Israeli air strikes began early on Wednesday and were backed by up to 30 tanks and other ground forces.
A military spokesman said the air force had targeted "armed gunmen" east of Gaza City as troops mounted a fresh incursion on the city's borders, the AFP news agency reported.
According to the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Gaza, the tanks stopped short of Gaza City and the refugee camp of Jabaliya.
In one strike, offices used by Hamas in Gaza City were also targeted. There were reports that several Hamas members died, plus at least one militant from the Popular Resistance Committees group.
Three girls, including one infant, were among the dead, Palestinians said.
As well as attempting to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Israeli units operating in Gaza have been trying to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets into Israel.
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
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UN calls for Mid-East ceasefire
Wednesday, 26 July 2006, 12:15 GMT 13:15 UK
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, at Middle East crisis talks in Rome, has called for an immediate ceasefire from both Hezbollah and Israel.
He said Israel should halt all ground operations, bombardments and blockades, and Hezbollah stop deliberately targeting Israeli population centres.
Fighting is continuing in south Lebanon though vital aid is now on the way.
His comments come as outcry over the death of four UN observers in Lebanon, killed by an Israeli jet, grows.
According to an initial UN investigation into the incident the observers were subjected to a six-hour bomb attack by Israeli forces during which they called Israel's military 10 times to tell them to stop.
The Rome summit, which was called by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, brings together EU and Arab nations plus the US and Russia, but not Israel, Iran or Syria.
One of the key items on the agenda is the proposal for an international peacekeeping force to police southern Lebanon.
A number of countries which have been named as possible contributors to such a force are attending the summit.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would establish what he called a security zone in southern Lebanon which would be maintained under the control of Israeli forces if there was no multinational force.
In other developments:
A Jordanian military plane arrives in Beirut to evacuate some of the most seriously wounded Lebanese civilians
Ten trucks loaded with food and medical supplies head from Beirut to the beleaguered south of the country
Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah warns on TV that his organisation will begin firing rockets further south into Israel than Haifa
BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says the Italian prime minister and others believe a quick ceasefire is the main priority.
But the US and Britain will not push for a truce unless the root causes of the conflict are addressed, our correspondent adds, and officials from both countries have been downplaying expectations of any far-reaching conclusions.
It is the third day of Ms Rice's diplomatic mission to ease the crisis, having travelled to Lebanon, Israel and the West Bank earlier in the week.
On Tuesday evening Ms Rice was meeting Mr Annan in Rome when news of Israel's bombing of a UN observer post in Khiam in southern Lebanon broke.
The observers were part of the Untso mission - the first peacekeeping operation ever established by the UN, which has been operating in the Middle East since 1948, and currently has about 150 observers.
Annan accusation
The observers had taken shelter in a bunker under their base because there had already been 14 Israeli artillery attacks on their position.
The BBC's Paul Adams says that they called the Israeli military 10 times over a period of six hours to tell them to stop shelling before they were killed with a precision guided missile.
Four unarmed observers, from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, died in the attack.
A UN rescue team also came under fire as it searched the rubble for survivors.
In a statement on Tuesday Mr Annan was quick to say the attack was the result of "apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces". He demanded a full investigation.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has expressed his regret over the deaths in a phone call to Mr Annan, saying that the post was hit by mistake.
Governments around the world have condemned the attack. Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallukh, described it as barbaric and premeditated aggression.
Rocket hits
More than 380 Lebanese and 42 Israelis have died in two weeks of conflict, which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
The situation is particularly bad in the south where many people found themselves trapped amid the conflict after Israeli war planes bombed bridges and roads that could have offered escape.
Overnight there was more fierce fighting between Israeli ground troops and Hezbollah militants around the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil and there have been unconfirmed reports in Arab media that at least nine Israeli troops have died.
The roads to the south-east of Tyre are filled with cars carrying refugees from village near the border with Israel where the heaviest fighting has been going on - Yaroun, Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbail.
Hezbollah attacks on Israel have continued - on Wednesday morning the city of Haifa was once again hit by rockets.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, at Middle East crisis talks in Rome, has called for an immediate ceasefire from both Hezbollah and Israel.
He said Israel should halt all ground operations, bombardments and blockades, and Hezbollah stop deliberately targeting Israeli population centres.
Fighting is continuing in south Lebanon though vital aid is now on the way.
His comments come as outcry over the death of four UN observers in Lebanon, killed by an Israeli jet, grows.
According to an initial UN investigation into the incident the observers were subjected to a six-hour bomb attack by Israeli forces during which they called Israel's military 10 times to tell them to stop.
The Rome summit, which was called by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, brings together EU and Arab nations plus the US and Russia, but not Israel, Iran or Syria.
One of the key items on the agenda is the proposal for an international peacekeeping force to police southern Lebanon.
A number of countries which have been named as possible contributors to such a force are attending the summit.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would establish what he called a security zone in southern Lebanon which would be maintained under the control of Israeli forces if there was no multinational force.
In other developments:
A Jordanian military plane arrives in Beirut to evacuate some of the most seriously wounded Lebanese civilians
Ten trucks loaded with food and medical supplies head from Beirut to the beleaguered south of the country
Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah warns on TV that his organisation will begin firing rockets further south into Israel than Haifa
BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says the Italian prime minister and others believe a quick ceasefire is the main priority.
But the US and Britain will not push for a truce unless the root causes of the conflict are addressed, our correspondent adds, and officials from both countries have been downplaying expectations of any far-reaching conclusions.
It is the third day of Ms Rice's diplomatic mission to ease the crisis, having travelled to Lebanon, Israel and the West Bank earlier in the week.
On Tuesday evening Ms Rice was meeting Mr Annan in Rome when news of Israel's bombing of a UN observer post in Khiam in southern Lebanon broke.
The observers were part of the Untso mission - the first peacekeeping operation ever established by the UN, which has been operating in the Middle East since 1948, and currently has about 150 observers.
Annan accusation
The observers had taken shelter in a bunker under their base because there had already been 14 Israeli artillery attacks on their position.
The BBC's Paul Adams says that they called the Israeli military 10 times over a period of six hours to tell them to stop shelling before they were killed with a precision guided missile.
Four unarmed observers, from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, died in the attack.
A UN rescue team also came under fire as it searched the rubble for survivors.
In a statement on Tuesday Mr Annan was quick to say the attack was the result of "apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces". He demanded a full investigation.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has expressed his regret over the deaths in a phone call to Mr Annan, saying that the post was hit by mistake.
Governments around the world have condemned the attack. Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallukh, described it as barbaric and premeditated aggression.
Rocket hits
More than 380 Lebanese and 42 Israelis have died in two weeks of conflict, which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
The situation is particularly bad in the south where many people found themselves trapped amid the conflict after Israeli war planes bombed bridges and roads that could have offered escape.
Overnight there was more fierce fighting between Israeli ground troops and Hezbollah militants around the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil and there have been unconfirmed reports in Arab media that at least nine Israeli troops have died.
The roads to the south-east of Tyre are filled with cars carrying refugees from village near the border with Israel where the heaviest fighting has been going on - Yaroun, Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbail.
Hezbollah attacks on Israel have continued - on Wednesday morning the city of Haifa was once again hit by rockets.
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
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Nine Israelis killed in Lebanon
Wednesday, 26 July 2006, 22:20 GMT 23:20 UK
Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in fierce clashes with Hezbollah militants in south Lebanon.
Eight troops died near the town of Bint Jbeil, the biggest loss of life in a single incident so far during Israel's two-week campaign.
In Rome, UN-led crisis talks ended with no agreement to urge an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The talks were overshadowed by an outcry after an Israeli missile killed four UN observers on Tuesday.
The eight Israelis were killed early on Wednesday morning as Israeli forces tried to take control of Bint Jbeil, a strategically located town near the border between Lebanon and Israel.
The Israeli army confirmed the deaths on Wednesday evening.
Israel says the town is a Hezbollah stronghold, used by the militants as a launching ground for the barrages of rockets fired daily into northern Israel.
Twenty-two soldiers were injured in the fighting, the Israeli army said.
A military source told the BBC that several soldiers were killed when the Israeli infantry were ambushed near the town shortly before dawn.
More were killed during a rescue operation, which was followed by an intense five-hour firefight.
Later, another Israeli soldier was killed in the border village of Maroun al-Ras, which Israel moved into over the weekend after several days of fighting.
In the southern city of Tyre, a massive explosion destroyed a six-storey building where a local Hezbollah leader was believed to have an apartment.
At least six people were injured, although the building was empty at the time.
Correspondents say Israel has been meeting stronger resistance from Hezbollah than it initially anticipated.
A senior Israel army general said he expected the fighting would continue for "several more weeks".
More than 405 Lebanese and 51 Israelis have died in violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
In other developments:
Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets into Israel, injuring 31 people, security and medical sources say
Ten lorries loaded with food and medical supplies arrived in the southern town of Tyre from the capital, Beirut
More than 300 people - mainly US and Australian citizens - who had been caught in the fighting in southern Lebanon are due to leave from Tyre on a Canadian ferry on Wednesday evening.
UN deaths
Details have emerged about the deaths of four unarmed UN observers after an Israeli air strike hit a UN post in south Lebanon on Tuesday.
UN staff had contacted Israeli troops 10 times to ask them to stop firing before a precision missile landed on the building, an initial UN report into the incident said.
Each time the UN contacted Israeli forces, they were assured the firing would stop, the report said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has expressed "deep regrets" over the deaths.
Israel is conducting an investigation into the incident and has rejected accusations made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the targeting of the UN position was "apparently deliberate".
White House spokesman Tony Snow said there was no reason to suggest the bombing was deliberate.
The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the incident.
'Utmost urgency'
The Rome summit, called by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, brought together EU and Arab nations plus the US and Russia, but not Israel, Iran or Syria.
Despite an impassioned warning from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that more people would die if a ceasefire was delayed, the ministers stopped short of calling for an immediate truce.
In a joint statement, the ministers attending pledged to work "with utmost urgency" for a ceasefire.
But, reflecting the US position, they said a ceasefire "must be lasting, permanent and sustainable".
There was agreement on the need for an international force with a UN mandate for south Lebanon, but no details were given about which countries would provide troops or the rules of engagement.
Ms Rice expressed concern about Syria and Iran's support for Hezbollah.
But Mr Annan said it was important to work with the countries of the region, including Syria and Iran, to find a solution to the crisis.
The BBC's Jonathan Beale says it seems the US got its way in the talks, and Mr Annan and the Arab nations represented at the summit will leave disappointed.
Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in fierce clashes with Hezbollah militants in south Lebanon.
Eight troops died near the town of Bint Jbeil, the biggest loss of life in a single incident so far during Israel's two-week campaign.
In Rome, UN-led crisis talks ended with no agreement to urge an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The talks were overshadowed by an outcry after an Israeli missile killed four UN observers on Tuesday.
The eight Israelis were killed early on Wednesday morning as Israeli forces tried to take control of Bint Jbeil, a strategically located town near the border between Lebanon and Israel.
The Israeli army confirmed the deaths on Wednesday evening.
Israel says the town is a Hezbollah stronghold, used by the militants as a launching ground for the barrages of rockets fired daily into northern Israel.
Twenty-two soldiers were injured in the fighting, the Israeli army said.
A military source told the BBC that several soldiers were killed when the Israeli infantry were ambushed near the town shortly before dawn.
More were killed during a rescue operation, which was followed by an intense five-hour firefight.
Later, another Israeli soldier was killed in the border village of Maroun al-Ras, which Israel moved into over the weekend after several days of fighting.
In the southern city of Tyre, a massive explosion destroyed a six-storey building where a local Hezbollah leader was believed to have an apartment.
At least six people were injured, although the building was empty at the time.
Correspondents say Israel has been meeting stronger resistance from Hezbollah than it initially anticipated.
A senior Israel army general said he expected the fighting would continue for "several more weeks".
More than 405 Lebanese and 51 Israelis have died in violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
In other developments:
Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets into Israel, injuring 31 people, security and medical sources say
Ten lorries loaded with food and medical supplies arrived in the southern town of Tyre from the capital, Beirut
More than 300 people - mainly US and Australian citizens - who had been caught in the fighting in southern Lebanon are due to leave from Tyre on a Canadian ferry on Wednesday evening.
UN deaths
Details have emerged about the deaths of four unarmed UN observers after an Israeli air strike hit a UN post in south Lebanon on Tuesday.
UN staff had contacted Israeli troops 10 times to ask them to stop firing before a precision missile landed on the building, an initial UN report into the incident said.
Each time the UN contacted Israeli forces, they were assured the firing would stop, the report said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has expressed "deep regrets" over the deaths.
Israel is conducting an investigation into the incident and has rejected accusations made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the targeting of the UN position was "apparently deliberate".
White House spokesman Tony Snow said there was no reason to suggest the bombing was deliberate.
The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the incident.
'Utmost urgency'
The Rome summit, called by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, brought together EU and Arab nations plus the US and Russia, but not Israel, Iran or Syria.
Despite an impassioned warning from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that more people would die if a ceasefire was delayed, the ministers stopped short of calling for an immediate truce.
In a joint statement, the ministers attending pledged to work "with utmost urgency" for a ceasefire.
But, reflecting the US position, they said a ceasefire "must be lasting, permanent and sustainable".
There was agreement on the need for an international force with a UN mandate for south Lebanon, but no details were given about which countries would provide troops or the rules of engagement.
Ms Rice expressed concern about Syria and Iran's support for Hezbollah.
But Mr Annan said it was important to work with the countries of the region, including Syria and Iran, to find a solution to the crisis.
The BBC's Jonathan Beale says it seems the US got its way in the talks, and Mr Annan and the Arab nations represented at the summit will leave disappointed.
-
theone666
- Major [O-4]
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- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Israel Vows 'Several More Weeks' of Attacks
By SAM F. GHATTAS, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 26) - Israel on Wednesday suffered its heaviest losses in Lebanon in its offensive against Hezbollah, with militants killing nine soldiers in battles for key towns. A top Israeli commander said he expected the campaign to last "several more weeks."
Officials confirmed that four U.N. observers died in an Israeli airstrike on their post Tuesday night.
With Israel facing fiercer than expected resistance in its campaign against the Islamic militants, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel wants to establish a 1.2 mile-wide strip in south Lebanon that will be free of Hezbollah guerrillas - ruling out a larger occupation.
In Rome, U.S., European and Arab officials holding crisis talks on Lebanon failed to agree on details for a cease-fire to end 15 days of fighting. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced intense pressure for Washington to change its stance and call for an immediate halt to the violence.
Rice insisted any cease-fire must be "sustainable" and that there could be "no return to the status quo" - a reference to the U.S. and Israeli stance that Hezbollah must first be pushed back from the border and the Lebanese army backed by international forces deployed in the south.
Olmert gave the first outline of Israel's new "security zone" in a closed meeting of parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, according to participants.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz first raised the idea of a buffer zone Tuesday, but left somewhat unclear whether Israeli troops would patrol it or try to keep out Hezbollah fighters from a distance, by artillery fire and airstrikes.
Israeli soldiers patrolled a much larger "security zone" during an 18-year occupation of south Lebanon, but Olmert indicated the new buffer zone would be different. "We do not have any intention of returning to the security zone but want to create an area where there will be no Hezbollah," he was quoted as saying.
Olmert also reiterated Israel's call for an international force with muscle to be deployed along the border, as opposed to the U.N. force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
Fierce fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas the key town of Bint Jbail killed eight Israeli soldiers and wounded 22 others, the Israeli army said. A ninth Israeli was killed in the fight for the nearby town of Maroun al-Ras, the army said.
Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahhal and Al-Jazeera gave a different toll for Bint Jbail, saying 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in the town. Another Arab broadcaster, Al-Arabiya, reported as many as 14 had been killed.
It was the deadliest day in Lebanon for Israel since the fighting began July 12. On that day, Hezbollah forces crossed the border into Israel, killing three soldiers and capturing two. Five more Israelis were killed in Lebanon when they pursued the militants across the frontier.
Hezbollah said Israeli forces were trying to advance toward a hospital in Bint Jbail. Israeli forces had managed to seize a few points inside the town, but not yet its center, senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Komati told The Associated Press.
The Israeli army said several Hezbollah fighters took cover in a mosque. Komati denied the allegation and suggested those inside were civilians, while Rahhal said they could be fighters who were praying.
Militants fired one of their largest barrages into northern Israel - 119 rockets that wounded at least 31 people and damaged property. The volleys came despite two weeks of Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah rocket launchers and positions.
Israeli warplanes staged 15 airstrikes in southern Lebanon. An evening strike leveled an empty six-story building in the southern port city of Tyre, security officials and witnesses reported.
One person was killed in a strike that destroyed the headquarters of the Shiite Amal movement in the town of Zefta, officials said.
At least 422 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. Up to 750,000 Lebanese have been driven from their homes. At least 50 Israelis have been confirmed killed, including 32 troops, according to authorities.
The town of Bint Jbail has great symbolic importance for the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas. It is the largest Shiite community in the border area, although most of its 30,000 residents are believed to have fled and was known as the "capital of the resistance" during Israel's 1982-90 occupation because of its support for Hezbollah.
An Israeli seizure of the town, about 2 1/2 miles from the border, would rob Hezbollah of a significant refuge overlooking northern Israel and force its fighters to operate from smaller, more vulnerable villages. The town is in a tiny pocket of about six square miles where significant Israeli ground forces have entered southern Lebanon.
Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, the chief of Israel's northern command, said he expected the offensive to continue "for several more weeks."
"In a number of weeks, we will be able to (declare) a victory," he said at a news conference.
About 100 foreigners - mostly Americans - who had been visiting relatives in the village of Yaroun fled to Tyre, and described a village ravaged by bombardment.
"It was worse than a nightmare. I saw dogs and cats on bodies that couldn't be taken from bombed-out houses. We ran from one building to another trying to escape the bombing," said Ali Abbas Tehfi, of Los Angeles.
"It didn't stop. It didn't stop even for a day. Everything is finished," he said. He said an unknown number of Americans were still trapped in the town.
The Israeli bombardment of a U.N. observation post in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam provoked a sharp exchange between the world body and Israel.
Olmert expressed "deep regret" over the deaths and said they were "mistaken." But he rejected a charge by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the direct hit on the position was apparently deliberate.
"It's inconceivable for the U.N. to define an error as an apparently deliberate action," Olmert said, adding that he ordered an investigation.
Three bodies were pulled from the ruins. Workers were still trying to reach the fourth, the U.N. observer force said.
One was identified as Chinese U.N. observer Du Zhaoyu, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. China demanded that Israel apologize. The other three U.N. observers were from Austria, Canada and Finland.
The bodies of a Nigerian civilian worker for the U.N. observers and his wife were finally dug out of building outside Tyre where they were killed in fighting last week.
In the past two weeks, there have been several dozen incidents of firing close to U.N. peacekeepers and observers, including direct hits on nine positions, some of them repeatedly. As a result of these attacks, 12 U.N. personnel have been killed or injured, U.N. officials said.
Proposals for disarming the Shiite Islamic militant group and assembling an international peacekeeping force along the border were discussed at the Rome meeting.
Annan called for the formation of a multinational force to help Lebanon assert its authority and implement U.N. resolutions that would disarm Hezbollah.
After listening to an appeal from Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora for them to stop the killing, the officials said they had agreed on the need to deploy an international force under the aegis of the U.N. in southern Lebanon. Italian Premier Romano Prodi said in an interview with the AP that his country will commit troops if it has a U.N. mandate.
There was no agreement in Rome, however, on when a cease-fire could take place.
"Participants expressed their determination to work immediately to reach, with utmost urgency, a cease-fire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities. The cease-fire must be lasting, permanent and sustainable," said Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema at the close of the meeting.
Israel, meanwhile, pressed ahead with its nearly month-old offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza. At least 23 Palestinians, including three young girls, were killed in airstrikes and artillery bombardment that also wounded dozens.
About 50 Israeli tanks and bulldozers drove into northern Gaza, flattening orchards and greenhouses to deprive militants firing rockets of cover. Aircraft also blasted several houses of Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists after warning people to leave.
AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Sheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut and Katherine Shrader and Victor L. Simpson in Rome contributed to this story.
7/26/2006 13:24:32
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 26) - Israel on Wednesday suffered its heaviest losses in Lebanon in its offensive against Hezbollah, with militants killing nine soldiers in battles for key towns. A top Israeli commander said he expected the campaign to last "several more weeks."
Officials confirmed that four U.N. observers died in an Israeli airstrike on their post Tuesday night.
With Israel facing fiercer than expected resistance in its campaign against the Islamic militants, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel wants to establish a 1.2 mile-wide strip in south Lebanon that will be free of Hezbollah guerrillas - ruling out a larger occupation.
In Rome, U.S., European and Arab officials holding crisis talks on Lebanon failed to agree on details for a cease-fire to end 15 days of fighting. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced intense pressure for Washington to change its stance and call for an immediate halt to the violence.
Rice insisted any cease-fire must be "sustainable" and that there could be "no return to the status quo" - a reference to the U.S. and Israeli stance that Hezbollah must first be pushed back from the border and the Lebanese army backed by international forces deployed in the south.
Olmert gave the first outline of Israel's new "security zone" in a closed meeting of parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, according to participants.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz first raised the idea of a buffer zone Tuesday, but left somewhat unclear whether Israeli troops would patrol it or try to keep out Hezbollah fighters from a distance, by artillery fire and airstrikes.
Israeli soldiers patrolled a much larger "security zone" during an 18-year occupation of south Lebanon, but Olmert indicated the new buffer zone would be different. "We do not have any intention of returning to the security zone but want to create an area where there will be no Hezbollah," he was quoted as saying.
Olmert also reiterated Israel's call for an international force with muscle to be deployed along the border, as opposed to the U.N. force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
Fierce fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas the key town of Bint Jbail killed eight Israeli soldiers and wounded 22 others, the Israeli army said. A ninth Israeli was killed in the fight for the nearby town of Maroun al-Ras, the army said.
Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahhal and Al-Jazeera gave a different toll for Bint Jbail, saying 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in the town. Another Arab broadcaster, Al-Arabiya, reported as many as 14 had been killed.
It was the deadliest day in Lebanon for Israel since the fighting began July 12. On that day, Hezbollah forces crossed the border into Israel, killing three soldiers and capturing two. Five more Israelis were killed in Lebanon when they pursued the militants across the frontier.
Hezbollah said Israeli forces were trying to advance toward a hospital in Bint Jbail. Israeli forces had managed to seize a few points inside the town, but not yet its center, senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Komati told The Associated Press.
The Israeli army said several Hezbollah fighters took cover in a mosque. Komati denied the allegation and suggested those inside were civilians, while Rahhal said they could be fighters who were praying.
Militants fired one of their largest barrages into northern Israel - 119 rockets that wounded at least 31 people and damaged property. The volleys came despite two weeks of Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah rocket launchers and positions.
Israeli warplanes staged 15 airstrikes in southern Lebanon. An evening strike leveled an empty six-story building in the southern port city of Tyre, security officials and witnesses reported.
One person was killed in a strike that destroyed the headquarters of the Shiite Amal movement in the town of Zefta, officials said.
At least 422 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. Up to 750,000 Lebanese have been driven from their homes. At least 50 Israelis have been confirmed killed, including 32 troops, according to authorities.
The town of Bint Jbail has great symbolic importance for the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas. It is the largest Shiite community in the border area, although most of its 30,000 residents are believed to have fled and was known as the "capital of the resistance" during Israel's 1982-90 occupation because of its support for Hezbollah.
An Israeli seizure of the town, about 2 1/2 miles from the border, would rob Hezbollah of a significant refuge overlooking northern Israel and force its fighters to operate from smaller, more vulnerable villages. The town is in a tiny pocket of about six square miles where significant Israeli ground forces have entered southern Lebanon.
Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, the chief of Israel's northern command, said he expected the offensive to continue "for several more weeks."
"In a number of weeks, we will be able to (declare) a victory," he said at a news conference.
About 100 foreigners - mostly Americans - who had been visiting relatives in the village of Yaroun fled to Tyre, and described a village ravaged by bombardment.
"It was worse than a nightmare. I saw dogs and cats on bodies that couldn't be taken from bombed-out houses. We ran from one building to another trying to escape the bombing," said Ali Abbas Tehfi, of Los Angeles.
"It didn't stop. It didn't stop even for a day. Everything is finished," he said. He said an unknown number of Americans were still trapped in the town.
The Israeli bombardment of a U.N. observation post in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam provoked a sharp exchange between the world body and Israel.
Olmert expressed "deep regret" over the deaths and said they were "mistaken." But he rejected a charge by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the direct hit on the position was apparently deliberate.
"It's inconceivable for the U.N. to define an error as an apparently deliberate action," Olmert said, adding that he ordered an investigation.
Three bodies were pulled from the ruins. Workers were still trying to reach the fourth, the U.N. observer force said.
One was identified as Chinese U.N. observer Du Zhaoyu, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. China demanded that Israel apologize. The other three U.N. observers were from Austria, Canada and Finland.
The bodies of a Nigerian civilian worker for the U.N. observers and his wife were finally dug out of building outside Tyre where they were killed in fighting last week.
In the past two weeks, there have been several dozen incidents of firing close to U.N. peacekeepers and observers, including direct hits on nine positions, some of them repeatedly. As a result of these attacks, 12 U.N. personnel have been killed or injured, U.N. officials said.
Proposals for disarming the Shiite Islamic militant group and assembling an international peacekeeping force along the border were discussed at the Rome meeting.
Annan called for the formation of a multinational force to help Lebanon assert its authority and implement U.N. resolutions that would disarm Hezbollah.
After listening to an appeal from Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora for them to stop the killing, the officials said they had agreed on the need to deploy an international force under the aegis of the U.N. in southern Lebanon. Italian Premier Romano Prodi said in an interview with the AP that his country will commit troops if it has a U.N. mandate.
There was no agreement in Rome, however, on when a cease-fire could take place.
"Participants expressed their determination to work immediately to reach, with utmost urgency, a cease-fire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities. The cease-fire must be lasting, permanent and sustainable," said Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema at the close of the meeting.
Israel, meanwhile, pressed ahead with its nearly month-old offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza. At least 23 Palestinians, including three young girls, were killed in airstrikes and artillery bombardment that also wounded dozens.
About 50 Israeli tanks and bulldozers drove into northern Gaza, flattening orchards and greenhouses to deprive militants firing rockets of cover. Aircraft also blasted several houses of Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists after warning people to leave.
AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Sheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut and Katherine Shrader and Victor L. Simpson in Rome contributed to this story.
7/26/2006 13:24:32
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1434
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Israel Eyeing Wider Offensive in Lebanon
By SAM F. GHATTAS, AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 27) - Hezbollah dealt Israel its heaviest losses in the Lebanon campaign Wednesday, killing nine soldiers in fierce firefights. With key Mideast players failing to agree on a formula for a cease-fire, an Israeli general said the operation could last weeks.
Israel said it intends to damage Hezbollah and establish a "security zone" that would be free of the guerrillas and extend 1.2 miles into Lebanon from the Israeli border. Such a zone would prevent Hezbollah from carrying out cross-border raids such as the one two weeks ago which triggered the Israeli military response.
Israel said it would maintain such a zone, with firepower or other means, until the arrival of an international force with muscle to be deployed in a wider swath of southern Lebanon - as opposed to the U.N. force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
In Rome, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said participants at a daylong conference on the Mideast crisis agreed Wednesday on the need for a strong international force under a U.N. mandate. Italy, Turkey and Spain all said they might send troops.
Rice said more work was needed to define the force and its mission. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and diplomats from European and moderate Arab countries also attended the meeting; Israel, Iran and Syria did not.
The Israeli bombardment has failed to stop guerrilla rocket fire, even while killing hundreds, driving up to 750,000 people from their homes and causing billion of dollars in damage. Hezbollah fired another large barrage into northern Israel on Wednesday - 151 rockets that wounded at least 31 people and damaged property from the suburbs of the port on Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea to the Hula Valley above the Sea of Galilee. Over the past two weeks, the guerrillas have fired 1,436 rockets into Israel.
Pushing Hezbollah back with ground troops was proving to be bloody. Several thousand troops are in Lebanon , Israeli military officials said - mainly in a roughly 6-square-mile pocket around the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold just over two miles from the border.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and top Cabinet ministers were to decide Thursday whether to broaden the offensive, military and government officials said on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to discuss such matters with the press. Israel's Haaretz newspaper said military officials have criticized the government for not ordering a larger ground offensive, which they said would give troops an advantage over Hezbollah.
The Hezbollah fighters are still heavily outnumbered, with some 100 in Bint Jbail and several hundred more in surrounding fields, bunkers and cave, according to the officials. But they use classic guerrilla tactics, choosing when to strike in the hilly territory they know well. They are dug in with extensive tunnel networks and stockpiling weapons, including rockets with which they pelted Israeli forces Wednesday.
Violence was also increasing on the other front of Israel's fight on Islamic militants: Gaza, where Hamas-linked militants are holding an Israeli soldier seized a month ago. A force of 50 tanks and bulldozers entered the northern Gaza Strip to battle Hamas gunmen. Israeli air and artillery attacks killed 23 Palestinians, including at least 16 militants and three young girls.
Israel was feeling pressure on the international front - and anger over a bombing Tuesday night that directly hit a U.N. observation post on the border, killing four U.N. observers.
Australian troops would not join a new international force in southern Lebanon unless it had the strength and will to disarm Hezbollah, the prime minister said Thursday after his government decided to withdraw its 12 peacekeeping troops from southern Lebanon .
"It's no good sending a token force there, and I make it clear that Australian forces will never be part of a token force because it would be too dangerous," Prime Minister John Howard told an Australian radio station. A "serious" force would be made up of "tens of thousands," he said.
In Malaysia, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer offered stronger language, saying "there's no point in sending an international peacekeeping force on a suicide mission."
At the Rome talks, Rice resisted pressure from allies for Washington to change its stance and call for an immediate halt to the violence.
Rice insisted any cease-fire must be "sustainable" and that there could be "no return to the status quo" - a reference to the U.S. and Israeli position that Hezbollah must first be pushed back from the border and the Lebanese army backed by international forces deployed in the south.
The chief of Israel's northern command warned that the fight would drag on.
"I assume it will continue for several more weeks, and in a number of weeks we will be able to (declare) a victory," Maj. Gen. Udi Adam told a news conference.
While the ground battle was intensifying, the bombardment in rest of Lebanon appeared to be easing. Israeli jets were heard repeatedly over Beirut in the evening, but the capital saw no strikes.
But early Thursday, local broadcasters said Israel warplanes hit an army base and an adjacent relay station belonging to Lebanese state radio at Aamchit, 30 miles north of Beirut, knocking down a transmission tower. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah radar base like the one used in the July 14 attack on an Israeli vessel that killed four soldiers.
About 24 airstrikes were reported outside the immediate border region Wednesday, down from nearly 30 a day recently. One strike in the center of the southern port of Tyre collapsed the top floor and ripped the facade off an empty seven-story building where Hezbollah's top commander in the south has offices. The strike wounded 13 people, including six children, nearby.
Warplanes continued to target trucks at a time when aid groups are worried about moving aid to the south by truck. Three trucks carrying vegetables were hit in the Bekaa Valley and another on a road between Syria and Beirut.
The eight deaths in Bint Jbail, which Israel has been trying to take for four days, were the heaviest Israeli casualties in a single battle during the Lebanon campaign.
Israeli troops had thought they secured the area around the town, but the guerrillas ambushed a patrol before dawn, said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman. A rescue force went in, and fighting escalated. Hezbollah said its guerrillas ambushed an Israeli unit from three sides as it tried to advance from a ridge on the outskirts of the town.
Eight soldiers were killed and 22 wounded in the fighting, the army said. It later reported a ninth soldier killed and several other casualties in the nearby village of Maroun al-Ras.
At least 30 guerrillas were killed Wednesday, an Israeli military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Hezbollah announced no casualties; it has acknowledged 19 dead in four days of fighting around Bint Jbail.
The area features dense growth of underbrush and trees, with hills and narrow, winding roads - ideal for guerrilla emplacements and ambushes. Israeli media reported that some of the casualties resulted from direct hits by anti-tank rockets and others from roadside bombs.
So far, Israeli troops have gone house to house taking positions on the outskirts of the town, without going far inside Bint Jbail, the Israeli official said.
Bint Jbail has great symbolic importance for the Hezbollah guerrillas, who are Shiite Muslims. It has the largest Shiite community in the border area and was known as the "capital of the resistance" during Israel's 1982-2000 occupation because of its vehement support for Hezbollah.
An Israeli seizure of the town would rob Hezbollah of a significant refuge overlooking northern Israel and force its fighters to operate from smaller, more vulnerable villages in the south.
Wednesday's deaths brought to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the campaign, including 32 members of the military, according to the military.
In Lebanon , at least 423 people have been killed - including 376 civilians reported by the Health Ministry and security officials, 20 Lebanese soldiers and 27 fighters Hezbollah has acknowledged were killed. Israel says more than 100 guerrillas have been killed.
AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Sheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut and Katherine Shrader and Victor L. Simpson in Rome contributed to this story.
AP-NY-07-27-06 0405EDT
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 27) - Hezbollah dealt Israel its heaviest losses in the Lebanon campaign Wednesday, killing nine soldiers in fierce firefights. With key Mideast players failing to agree on a formula for a cease-fire, an Israeli general said the operation could last weeks.
Israel said it intends to damage Hezbollah and establish a "security zone" that would be free of the guerrillas and extend 1.2 miles into Lebanon from the Israeli border. Such a zone would prevent Hezbollah from carrying out cross-border raids such as the one two weeks ago which triggered the Israeli military response.
Israel said it would maintain such a zone, with firepower or other means, until the arrival of an international force with muscle to be deployed in a wider swath of southern Lebanon - as opposed to the U.N. force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
In Rome, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said participants at a daylong conference on the Mideast crisis agreed Wednesday on the need for a strong international force under a U.N. mandate. Italy, Turkey and Spain all said they might send troops.
Rice said more work was needed to define the force and its mission. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and diplomats from European and moderate Arab countries also attended the meeting; Israel, Iran and Syria did not.
The Israeli bombardment has failed to stop guerrilla rocket fire, even while killing hundreds, driving up to 750,000 people from their homes and causing billion of dollars in damage. Hezbollah fired another large barrage into northern Israel on Wednesday - 151 rockets that wounded at least 31 people and damaged property from the suburbs of the port on Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea to the Hula Valley above the Sea of Galilee. Over the past two weeks, the guerrillas have fired 1,436 rockets into Israel.
Pushing Hezbollah back with ground troops was proving to be bloody. Several thousand troops are in Lebanon , Israeli military officials said - mainly in a roughly 6-square-mile pocket around the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold just over two miles from the border.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and top Cabinet ministers were to decide Thursday whether to broaden the offensive, military and government officials said on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to discuss such matters with the press. Israel's Haaretz newspaper said military officials have criticized the government for not ordering a larger ground offensive, which they said would give troops an advantage over Hezbollah.
The Hezbollah fighters are still heavily outnumbered, with some 100 in Bint Jbail and several hundred more in surrounding fields, bunkers and cave, according to the officials. But they use classic guerrilla tactics, choosing when to strike in the hilly territory they know well. They are dug in with extensive tunnel networks and stockpiling weapons, including rockets with which they pelted Israeli forces Wednesday.
Violence was also increasing on the other front of Israel's fight on Islamic militants: Gaza, where Hamas-linked militants are holding an Israeli soldier seized a month ago. A force of 50 tanks and bulldozers entered the northern Gaza Strip to battle Hamas gunmen. Israeli air and artillery attacks killed 23 Palestinians, including at least 16 militants and three young girls.
Israel was feeling pressure on the international front - and anger over a bombing Tuesday night that directly hit a U.N. observation post on the border, killing four U.N. observers.
Australian troops would not join a new international force in southern Lebanon unless it had the strength and will to disarm Hezbollah, the prime minister said Thursday after his government decided to withdraw its 12 peacekeeping troops from southern Lebanon .
"It's no good sending a token force there, and I make it clear that Australian forces will never be part of a token force because it would be too dangerous," Prime Minister John Howard told an Australian radio station. A "serious" force would be made up of "tens of thousands," he said.
In Malaysia, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer offered stronger language, saying "there's no point in sending an international peacekeeping force on a suicide mission."
At the Rome talks, Rice resisted pressure from allies for Washington to change its stance and call for an immediate halt to the violence.
Rice insisted any cease-fire must be "sustainable" and that there could be "no return to the status quo" - a reference to the U.S. and Israeli position that Hezbollah must first be pushed back from the border and the Lebanese army backed by international forces deployed in the south.
The chief of Israel's northern command warned that the fight would drag on.
"I assume it will continue for several more weeks, and in a number of weeks we will be able to (declare) a victory," Maj. Gen. Udi Adam told a news conference.
While the ground battle was intensifying, the bombardment in rest of Lebanon appeared to be easing. Israeli jets were heard repeatedly over Beirut in the evening, but the capital saw no strikes.
But early Thursday, local broadcasters said Israel warplanes hit an army base and an adjacent relay station belonging to Lebanese state radio at Aamchit, 30 miles north of Beirut, knocking down a transmission tower. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah radar base like the one used in the July 14 attack on an Israeli vessel that killed four soldiers.
About 24 airstrikes were reported outside the immediate border region Wednesday, down from nearly 30 a day recently. One strike in the center of the southern port of Tyre collapsed the top floor and ripped the facade off an empty seven-story building where Hezbollah's top commander in the south has offices. The strike wounded 13 people, including six children, nearby.
Warplanes continued to target trucks at a time when aid groups are worried about moving aid to the south by truck. Three trucks carrying vegetables were hit in the Bekaa Valley and another on a road between Syria and Beirut.
The eight deaths in Bint Jbail, which Israel has been trying to take for four days, were the heaviest Israeli casualties in a single battle during the Lebanon campaign.
Israeli troops had thought they secured the area around the town, but the guerrillas ambushed a patrol before dawn, said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman. A rescue force went in, and fighting escalated. Hezbollah said its guerrillas ambushed an Israeli unit from three sides as it tried to advance from a ridge on the outskirts of the town.
Eight soldiers were killed and 22 wounded in the fighting, the army said. It later reported a ninth soldier killed and several other casualties in the nearby village of Maroun al-Ras.
At least 30 guerrillas were killed Wednesday, an Israeli military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Hezbollah announced no casualties; it has acknowledged 19 dead in four days of fighting around Bint Jbail.
The area features dense growth of underbrush and trees, with hills and narrow, winding roads - ideal for guerrilla emplacements and ambushes. Israeli media reported that some of the casualties resulted from direct hits by anti-tank rockets and others from roadside bombs.
So far, Israeli troops have gone house to house taking positions on the outskirts of the town, without going far inside Bint Jbail, the Israeli official said.
Bint Jbail has great symbolic importance for the Hezbollah guerrillas, who are Shiite Muslims. It has the largest Shiite community in the border area and was known as the "capital of the resistance" during Israel's 1982-2000 occupation because of its vehement support for Hezbollah.
An Israeli seizure of the town would rob Hezbollah of a significant refuge overlooking northern Israel and force its fighters to operate from smaller, more vulnerable villages in the south.
Wednesday's deaths brought to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the campaign, including 32 members of the military, according to the military.
In Lebanon , at least 423 people have been killed - including 376 civilians reported by the Health Ministry and security officials, 20 Lebanese soldiers and 27 fighters Hezbollah has acknowledged were killed. Israel says more than 100 guerrillas have been killed.
AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Sheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut and Katherine Shrader and Victor L. Simpson in Rome contributed to this story.
AP-NY-07-27-06 0405EDT
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1434
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Israel says world backs offensive
Thursday, 27 July 2006, 11:29 GMT 12:29 UK
Israel says the decision by diplomats not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive at a Middle East summit has given it the green light to continue.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
His comments came ahead of an Israeli cabinet meeting to decide whether to intensify the military offensive.
There have been more Israeli air raids and fighting continues in the south.
At least 423 Lebanese and 51 Israelis have died in the violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
Foreign ministers attending emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Mr Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said "everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror".
He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in.
'All southerners terrorists'
He added that Israel had given the civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to quit the area and therefore anyone still remaining there can be considered Hezbollah supporters.
"All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," Mr Ramon said.
Mr Ramon's call for the use of greater firepower came as the Israeli cabinet was set to decide whether to broaden its military offensive.
The chief of Israel's northern command, Maj Gen Udi Adam, has warned that he expects the fighting to "continue for several more weeks".
The head of political programmes at Hezbollah's TV station, al-Manar, Ibrahim Moussawi, says the organisation is determined to continue fighting:
"Israel is a mighty army. You're talking about a regional superpower with hi-tech weaponry," Mr Moussawi said. "But when you talk about resistance and determination and resolve to face and to confront this, yes, Hezbollah has the will and the determination to do it."
"The Israelis have tried this before since 1982, which culminated in the year 2000 with the defeat of the Israelis and their withdrawal from south Lebanon," he added.
In other developments:
Following the deaths of four UN observers in an Israeli air strike, Australia withdraws 12 UN peacekeepers, describing the prospect of sending an international force to Lebanon right now as a 'suicide mission'
UNHCR chief Antoni Guterres says 500,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon by the fighting and 200,000 have crossed the border
A poll of Israelis published by Israel's Maariv daily newspaper suggests 82% back the continuing offensive and 95% say Israel's action is justified.
The BBC Jim Muir in Tyre says that the progress of Israeli ground troops has not been as fast as expected as they battle through the difficult terrain of southern Lebanon.
They still have not managed to capture the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil, where they have suffered their worst losses.
An Israeli military official told the BBC that Israel has destroyed 50% of Hezbollah's weapons arsenal, but nonetheless the group's ability to inflict damage appears undiminished - on Wednesday they fired some 150 rockets into Israel, more than on any other day of the conflict.
Tyre exodus
Pursuing Mr Olmert's plan of pushing Hezbollah back from border areas, in order to prevent them continuing to fire rockets into Israeli territory, and establishing a "security zone" in the south will take many weeks, our correspondent adds.
Meanwhile, Israel's attacks on Lebanon have continued with air strikes on a Lebanese army base and a radio relay station north of Beirut.
Fighting is ongoing around the town of Bint Jbeil and in Tyre the bombing of nearby areas, combined with last night's raid on apartments right inside the city, has sparked a civilian exodus.
Israel says the decision by diplomats not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive at a Middle East summit has given it the green light to continue.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
His comments came ahead of an Israeli cabinet meeting to decide whether to intensify the military offensive.
There have been more Israeli air raids and fighting continues in the south.
At least 423 Lebanese and 51 Israelis have died in the violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
Foreign ministers attending emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Mr Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said "everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror".
He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in.
'All southerners terrorists'
He added that Israel had given the civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to quit the area and therefore anyone still remaining there can be considered Hezbollah supporters.
"All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," Mr Ramon said.
Mr Ramon's call for the use of greater firepower came as the Israeli cabinet was set to decide whether to broaden its military offensive.
The chief of Israel's northern command, Maj Gen Udi Adam, has warned that he expects the fighting to "continue for several more weeks".
The head of political programmes at Hezbollah's TV station, al-Manar, Ibrahim Moussawi, says the organisation is determined to continue fighting:
"Israel is a mighty army. You're talking about a regional superpower with hi-tech weaponry," Mr Moussawi said. "But when you talk about resistance and determination and resolve to face and to confront this, yes, Hezbollah has the will and the determination to do it."
"The Israelis have tried this before since 1982, which culminated in the year 2000 with the defeat of the Israelis and their withdrawal from south Lebanon," he added.
In other developments:
Following the deaths of four UN observers in an Israeli air strike, Australia withdraws 12 UN peacekeepers, describing the prospect of sending an international force to Lebanon right now as a 'suicide mission'
UNHCR chief Antoni Guterres says 500,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon by the fighting and 200,000 have crossed the border
A poll of Israelis published by Israel's Maariv daily newspaper suggests 82% back the continuing offensive and 95% say Israel's action is justified.
The BBC Jim Muir in Tyre says that the progress of Israeli ground troops has not been as fast as expected as they battle through the difficult terrain of southern Lebanon.
They still have not managed to capture the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil, where they have suffered their worst losses.
An Israeli military official told the BBC that Israel has destroyed 50% of Hezbollah's weapons arsenal, but nonetheless the group's ability to inflict damage appears undiminished - on Wednesday they fired some 150 rockets into Israel, more than on any other day of the conflict.
Tyre exodus
Pursuing Mr Olmert's plan of pushing Hezbollah back from border areas, in order to prevent them continuing to fire rockets into Israeli territory, and establishing a "security zone" in the south will take many weeks, our correspondent adds.
Meanwhile, Israel's attacks on Lebanon have continued with air strikes on a Lebanese army base and a radio relay station north of Beirut.
Fighting is ongoing around the town of Bint Jbeil and in Tyre the bombing of nearby areas, combined with last night's raid on apartments right inside the city, has sparked a civilian exodus.
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1434
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Israel to bolster troop numbers
Thursday, 27 July 2006, 21:00 GMT 22:00 UK
Israel has approved the call-up thousands of fresh reservists to boost its military campaign in Lebanon.
A cabinet meeting said troops were being readied "ahead of possible developments" and to refresh forces.
But ministers did not decide to launch a larger ground offensive - a day after Israel suffered its biggest one-day loss of the 16-day conflict.
The European Union has dismissed an Israeli minister's remark that it had been given the green light to continue.
Later, the UN Security Council expressed "shock and distress" at the deaths of four of its observers in an Israeli bombing raid, but did not formally condemn the strike despite lengthy negotiations.
Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, praised the "fair and balanced" statement, and expressed regret for the "tragic accident".
On Thursday, Israeli warplanes bombed targets across Lebanon. Hezbollah launched more than 40 rockets into Israel.
Lebanon's health minister said up to 600 Lebanese civilians had been killed so far - including as many as 200 still buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Fifty-one Israelis have died in the violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
However, a poll of Israelis published by Israel's Maariv daily newspaper suggests 82% back the offensive and 95% say the action is justified.
'Human shields'
Three divisions of Israeli reservists are to be called up, with estimates varying from 15,000 to 40,000.
A statement from the Israeli cabinet meeting said their deployment would only come after an "additional" approval.
Ministers also said current military activities would be kept unchanged - despite apparent pressure from the military establishment to step up ground operations.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel's military operation would continue until a secure border strip was set up where Hezbollah could not return.
"We will not allow the Hezbollah flag to be lifted again on the fences of the state of Israel," Mr Peretz said.
"The strategic damage to Hezbollah is huge," the army's Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Dan Halutz, said, as Israeli troops battled Hezbollah militants in the Hezbollah stronghold village of Bint Jbeil, where they have suffered the worst losses.
Cpt Doron Spielman told BBC News the battle was being fought at close range and accused Hezbollah of using the civilian population as human shields.
"Hezbollah blockaded the city before the battle began, and we now know at gunpoint forced the Lebanese residents to stay inside the city," Cpt Spielman said.
"We are engaged in a very close combat urban battle - but there are Lebanese civilians trapped inside the city which makes our progress very difficult. We are trying of course to take care of the terrorists while preserving civilian life."
The head of political programmes at Hezbollah's TV station al-Manar, Ibrahim Moussawi, has said the organisation is determined to continue fighting.
"The Israelis have tried this before since 1982, which culminated in the year 2000 with the defeat of the Israelis and their withdrawal from south Lebanon," Mr Moussawi said.
EU disagrees
Foreign ministers from key countries - including the US, UK and regional powers - attended emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday.
They did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with the "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
But a high-level EU delegation told Israel the conference had not authorised the campaign.
"The EU's position is that we should have an immediate ceasefire," said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Israel has approved the call-up thousands of fresh reservists to boost its military campaign in Lebanon.
A cabinet meeting said troops were being readied "ahead of possible developments" and to refresh forces.
But ministers did not decide to launch a larger ground offensive - a day after Israel suffered its biggest one-day loss of the 16-day conflict.
The European Union has dismissed an Israeli minister's remark that it had been given the green light to continue.
Later, the UN Security Council expressed "shock and distress" at the deaths of four of its observers in an Israeli bombing raid, but did not formally condemn the strike despite lengthy negotiations.
Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, praised the "fair and balanced" statement, and expressed regret for the "tragic accident".
On Thursday, Israeli warplanes bombed targets across Lebanon. Hezbollah launched more than 40 rockets into Israel.
Lebanon's health minister said up to 600 Lebanese civilians had been killed so far - including as many as 200 still buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Fifty-one Israelis have died in the violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
However, a poll of Israelis published by Israel's Maariv daily newspaper suggests 82% back the offensive and 95% say the action is justified.
'Human shields'
Three divisions of Israeli reservists are to be called up, with estimates varying from 15,000 to 40,000.
A statement from the Israeli cabinet meeting said their deployment would only come after an "additional" approval.
Ministers also said current military activities would be kept unchanged - despite apparent pressure from the military establishment to step up ground operations.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel's military operation would continue until a secure border strip was set up where Hezbollah could not return.
"We will not allow the Hezbollah flag to be lifted again on the fences of the state of Israel," Mr Peretz said.
"The strategic damage to Hezbollah is huge," the army's Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Dan Halutz, said, as Israeli troops battled Hezbollah militants in the Hezbollah stronghold village of Bint Jbeil, where they have suffered the worst losses.
Cpt Doron Spielman told BBC News the battle was being fought at close range and accused Hezbollah of using the civilian population as human shields.
"Hezbollah blockaded the city before the battle began, and we now know at gunpoint forced the Lebanese residents to stay inside the city," Cpt Spielman said.
"We are engaged in a very close combat urban battle - but there are Lebanese civilians trapped inside the city which makes our progress very difficult. We are trying of course to take care of the terrorists while preserving civilian life."
The head of political programmes at Hezbollah's TV station al-Manar, Ibrahim Moussawi, has said the organisation is determined to continue fighting.
"The Israelis have tried this before since 1982, which culminated in the year 2000 with the defeat of the Israelis and their withdrawal from south Lebanon," Mr Moussawi said.
EU disagrees
Foreign ministers from key countries - including the US, UK and regional powers - attended emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday.
They did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with the "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
But a high-level EU delegation told Israel the conference had not authorised the campaign.
"The EU's position is that we should have an immediate ceasefire," said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
-
theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1434
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
Israel Calls Up 30,000 Troops to Fight Hezbollah
By RAVI NESSMAN , AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 27) - Israel's government decided Thursday not to expand its battle with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for now, but authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensifies. Lebanese officials estimated a civilian death toll as high as 600.
With Hezbollah allies Iran and Syria reportedly meeting in Damascus to discuss the crisis, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was "willing and ready" to return to the region to work for a sustainable peace agreement.
But President Bush suggested he would support the offensive for as long as it takes to cripple Hezbollah. He also sharply condemned Iran for its support of the Shiite Muslim militant group.
The callup signaled that Israel was settling in for a much longer battle than had initially been expected, one that could grow far bloodier if Israel decides its air attacks and small-scale invasion into Lebanon are not working and sends in thousands of more ground forces.
With no end in sight after 16 days of intense fighting, al-Qaida's No. 2 man vowed to attack "everywhere" until Islam prevails.
In recent days, senior Israeli generals urged the government to authorize a broader ground campaign in southern Lebanon, which they said would help the thousands of troops already engaged in bloody battles there.
Israel's security Cabinet authorized the army to call up three additional reserve divisions to refresh the troops in Lebanon if they are needed, but rejected the generals' advice to expand the offensive.
However, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said the failure of world leaders to call for an immediate cease-fire at a summit in Rome gave Israel a green light to carry on with its campaign to crush Hezbollah - an assertion hotly rejected by European officials.
Wednesday's conference ended in disagreement, with most European leaders calling for an immediate cease-fire and the United States wanting to give Israel more time to neutralize Hezbollah.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed," Ramon told Israel's Army Radio.
European leaders said Ramon was mistaken.
"I would say just the opposite - yesterday in Rome it was clear that everyone present wanted to see an end to the fighting as swiftly as possible," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday struck roads and houses, many believed to be the deserted homes of Hezbollah activists, in the apple-growing region of Iqlim al-Tuffah. The strikes caused casualties, but fighting kept ambulances and civil defense crews from the areas, security officials and witnesses said.
Other strikes hit a Lebanese army base in the north, while artillery and warplanes pounded the area near the border, according to witnesses. However, the fierce ground battles that raged Wednesday for the border towns of Bint Jbail and nearby Maroun al-Ras appeared to have abated, with U.N. observers reporting only "sporadic fighting" there.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said the strategic damage to Hezbollah was "enormous" and said the group would "not return to what it was."
Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah guerrillas overran the border, killed three Israeli soldiers on patrol and captured two others.
Since then, up to 600 civilians in Lebanon have been killed in a punishing campaign of airstrikes, artillery shelling and clashes. Lebanese Health Minister Jawad Khalifeh told The Associated Press on Thursday that 382 were confirmed dead and the rest either known to be buried under the rubble of buildings or missing.
The civilian deaths, combined with casualty figures released by the Lebanese army and Hezbollah guerrillas, bring the confirmed death toll on the Lebanese side to at least 437 killed.
Fifty-two Israelis have been killed in 16 days of fighting, including 33 soldiers and 19 civilians who died in Hezbollah rocket attacks into northern Israel. The guerrillas shot 110 rockets into Israel on Thursday, wounding 20 people and bringing the total of rockets launched to 1,564.
The army broadcast a warning on its Arabic-language radio station Thursday telling Lebanese in the south that their villages would be "totally destroyed" if rockets were fired from them.
Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said there have been hundreds of Hezbollah casualties and that "we have caused serious damage to their rocket-launching capabilities."
But Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a staunch supporter of Hezbollah, said Israel would never be able to crush the group militarily, and should stop fighting and start talking.
"Whatever it (Israel) does it's not going to reach its goal," he told The Associated Press. "They're not going to be able to take out the weaponry of Hezbollah. So all they're doing is massive destruction."
Meanwhile, al-Qaida issued its first response to the violence, threatening to retaliate with new attacks.
The videotape by Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri was an effort by the terror network to rally Islamic militants by exploiting Israel's two-pronged offensive - against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas-linked militants in Gaza.
"We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated," al-Zawahri said, adding that "all the world is a battlefield open in front of us."
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," he said. "We will attack everywhere."
In Damascus, Syrian and Iranian officials gathered to hold meetings on the crisis, according to Iranian and Kuwaiti news reports. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was also to take part in the meeting along with Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to Kuwait's Al-Siyassah newspaper, known for its opposition to the Syrian regime.
The newspaper said the meeting was designed to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah with "Iranian arms flowing through Syrian territories."
Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahhal would not comment on whether Nasrallah, whose movements are kept secret, was in Damascus. However, Rahhal was dismissive of the Kuwaiti newspaper report.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking in Rome after meeting with Italian Premier Romano Prodi, said intense negotiations were under way to free an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-linked militants. However, a Palestinian lawmaker and a spokesman for the Hamas military denied that the soldier's release could be imminent.
With cease-fire efforts stalemated, Rice - who was in Malaysia after a trip to Beirut, Jerusalem and the Rome conference - said she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East. No timetable was announced.
"I am more than happy to go back," Rice said, if her efforts can "move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence."
In his interview with Army Radio, Ramon, the justice minister, said the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent Israeli casualties. Ramon spoke a day after nine soldiers were killed in house-to-house fighting. Hezbollah acknowledged Thursday that it lost five fighters in the same clashes, though Israel said at least 30 were killed.
Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: "These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating."
Thousands of civilians are believed trapped in southern Lebanon, according to humanitarian officials.
International Red Cross spokesman Hisham Hassan said their teams that have visited border villages under heavy bombardment have found families hiding in schools, mosques and churches, or huddled together in homes they hope will withstand the barrage.
"But even the residents we speak to can't say how many are there, because everyone's hiding, they don't know who's dead or alive," he said.
7/27/2006 17:30:22 EDT
BEIRUT, Lebanon (July 27) - Israel's government decided Thursday not to expand its battle with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for now, but authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensifies. Lebanese officials estimated a civilian death toll as high as 600.
With Hezbollah allies Iran and Syria reportedly meeting in Damascus to discuss the crisis, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was "willing and ready" to return to the region to work for a sustainable peace agreement.
But President Bush suggested he would support the offensive for as long as it takes to cripple Hezbollah. He also sharply condemned Iran for its support of the Shiite Muslim militant group.
The callup signaled that Israel was settling in for a much longer battle than had initially been expected, one that could grow far bloodier if Israel decides its air attacks and small-scale invasion into Lebanon are not working and sends in thousands of more ground forces.
With no end in sight after 16 days of intense fighting, al-Qaida's No. 2 man vowed to attack "everywhere" until Islam prevails.
In recent days, senior Israeli generals urged the government to authorize a broader ground campaign in southern Lebanon, which they said would help the thousands of troops already engaged in bloody battles there.
Israel's security Cabinet authorized the army to call up three additional reserve divisions to refresh the troops in Lebanon if they are needed, but rejected the generals' advice to expand the offensive.
However, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said the failure of world leaders to call for an immediate cease-fire at a summit in Rome gave Israel a green light to carry on with its campaign to crush Hezbollah - an assertion hotly rejected by European officials.
Wednesday's conference ended in disagreement, with most European leaders calling for an immediate cease-fire and the United States wanting to give Israel more time to neutralize Hezbollah.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed," Ramon told Israel's Army Radio.
European leaders said Ramon was mistaken.
"I would say just the opposite - yesterday in Rome it was clear that everyone present wanted to see an end to the fighting as swiftly as possible," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday struck roads and houses, many believed to be the deserted homes of Hezbollah activists, in the apple-growing region of Iqlim al-Tuffah. The strikes caused casualties, but fighting kept ambulances and civil defense crews from the areas, security officials and witnesses said.
Other strikes hit a Lebanese army base in the north, while artillery and warplanes pounded the area near the border, according to witnesses. However, the fierce ground battles that raged Wednesday for the border towns of Bint Jbail and nearby Maroun al-Ras appeared to have abated, with U.N. observers reporting only "sporadic fighting" there.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said the strategic damage to Hezbollah was "enormous" and said the group would "not return to what it was."
Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah guerrillas overran the border, killed three Israeli soldiers on patrol and captured two others.
Since then, up to 600 civilians in Lebanon have been killed in a punishing campaign of airstrikes, artillery shelling and clashes. Lebanese Health Minister Jawad Khalifeh told The Associated Press on Thursday that 382 were confirmed dead and the rest either known to be buried under the rubble of buildings or missing.
The civilian deaths, combined with casualty figures released by the Lebanese army and Hezbollah guerrillas, bring the confirmed death toll on the Lebanese side to at least 437 killed.
Fifty-two Israelis have been killed in 16 days of fighting, including 33 soldiers and 19 civilians who died in Hezbollah rocket attacks into northern Israel. The guerrillas shot 110 rockets into Israel on Thursday, wounding 20 people and bringing the total of rockets launched to 1,564.
The army broadcast a warning on its Arabic-language radio station Thursday telling Lebanese in the south that their villages would be "totally destroyed" if rockets were fired from them.
Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said there have been hundreds of Hezbollah casualties and that "we have caused serious damage to their rocket-launching capabilities."
But Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a staunch supporter of Hezbollah, said Israel would never be able to crush the group militarily, and should stop fighting and start talking.
"Whatever it (Israel) does it's not going to reach its goal," he told The Associated Press. "They're not going to be able to take out the weaponry of Hezbollah. So all they're doing is massive destruction."
Meanwhile, al-Qaida issued its first response to the violence, threatening to retaliate with new attacks.
The videotape by Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri was an effort by the terror network to rally Islamic militants by exploiting Israel's two-pronged offensive - against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas-linked militants in Gaza.
"We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated," al-Zawahri said, adding that "all the world is a battlefield open in front of us."
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," he said. "We will attack everywhere."
In Damascus, Syrian and Iranian officials gathered to hold meetings on the crisis, according to Iranian and Kuwaiti news reports. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was also to take part in the meeting along with Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to Kuwait's Al-Siyassah newspaper, known for its opposition to the Syrian regime.
The newspaper said the meeting was designed to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah with "Iranian arms flowing through Syrian territories."
Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahhal would not comment on whether Nasrallah, whose movements are kept secret, was in Damascus. However, Rahhal was dismissive of the Kuwaiti newspaper report.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking in Rome after meeting with Italian Premier Romano Prodi, said intense negotiations were under way to free an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-linked militants. However, a Palestinian lawmaker and a spokesman for the Hamas military denied that the soldier's release could be imminent.
With cease-fire efforts stalemated, Rice - who was in Malaysia after a trip to Beirut, Jerusalem and the Rome conference - said she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East. No timetable was announced.
"I am more than happy to go back," Rice said, if her efforts can "move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence."
In his interview with Army Radio, Ramon, the justice minister, said the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent Israeli casualties. Ramon spoke a day after nine soldiers were killed in house-to-house fighting. Hezbollah acknowledged Thursday that it lost five fighters in the same clashes, though Israel said at least 30 were killed.
Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: "These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating."
Thousands of civilians are believed trapped in southern Lebanon, according to humanitarian officials.
International Red Cross spokesman Hisham Hassan said their teams that have visited border villages under heavy bombardment have found families hiding in schools, mosques and churches, or huddled together in homes they hope will withstand the barrage.
"But even the residents we speak to can't say how many are there, because everyone's hiding, they don't know who's dead or alive," he said.
7/27/2006 17:30:22 EDT
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theone666
- Major [O-4]
- Posts: 1434
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:00 am
UN 'shock' at Lebanon bomb deaths
Friday, 28 July 2006, 03:42 GMT 04:42 UK
The UN Security Council has expressed "shock and distress" at the deaths of four of its peacekeepers in an Israeli bombing raid in Lebanon this week.
It follows nearly two days of talks in which the US opposed China's calls for sterner condemnation of Israel.
Lebanon's health minister meanwhile has said about 600 civilians have died in Israeli attacks in the past 16 days.
Some 51 Israelis - 18 of them civilians - have been killed by the Shia militia, Hezbollah, since the conflict began.
The Lebanese minister, Mohammad Khalifeh, said roughly one-third of the dead were believed to still be buried under buildings bombed by Israel.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of instigating the violence, after it captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
'Secure border'
The Security Council released a policy statement - which has less force than a resolution - expressing dismay at the deaths of the peacekeepers after days of fierce debate.
US opposition resulted in a final draft that was significantly different to the version first put forward by China and other countries.
Calls for a joint Israeli-UN investigation into the peacekeepers' death were dropped, as was any direct condemnation of a "deliberate attack against UN personnel".
Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, welcomed the council's "fair and balanced" statement.
Israel has apologised for the deaths of the peacekeepers, who were bombed on Tuesday at their base in southern Lebanon, saying it was an accident.
UN officials said they contacted Israel a dozen times before the bombing, asking them to stop firing, which Israel did not.
China, which lost one of its peacekeepers in the bombing, had been pushing for a harsher condemnation of Israel but the US opposed this.
Beijing's envoy to the UN, Wang Guangya, said in an apparent swipe at the US that members of the Security Council "had to respect each other" and said Washington's stance could have a "negative impact" in the long term.
Mr Wang warned that a Security Council discussion of Iran's alleged nuclear capability, due to take place on Friday, would also be difficult.
"Not all the members share the same view," he said.
Meanwhile, Israel plans to boost the Lebanese campaign by calling up three divisions of reservists, said to number between 15,000 to 40,000.
A statement from an Israeli cabinet meeting said their deployment would only come after an "additional" approval.
Ministers also said current military activities would remain unchanged - despite apparent pressure from the military establishment to step up ground operations.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel's military operation would continue until a secure border strip was set up where Hezbollah could not return to.
Crisis talks
Foreign ministers from key countries - including the US, UK and regional powers - attended emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday.
They did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with the "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
But a high-level EU delegation told Israel the conference had not authorised the campaign.
"The EU's position is that we should have an immediate ceasefire," said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Thousands of civilians have been fleeing attacks on southern Lebanon carried out by Israeli aircraft and ground forces.
The UN Security Council has expressed "shock and distress" at the deaths of four of its peacekeepers in an Israeli bombing raid in Lebanon this week.
It follows nearly two days of talks in which the US opposed China's calls for sterner condemnation of Israel.
Lebanon's health minister meanwhile has said about 600 civilians have died in Israeli attacks in the past 16 days.
Some 51 Israelis - 18 of them civilians - have been killed by the Shia militia, Hezbollah, since the conflict began.
The Lebanese minister, Mohammad Khalifeh, said roughly one-third of the dead were believed to still be buried under buildings bombed by Israel.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of instigating the violence, after it captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
'Secure border'
The Security Council released a policy statement - which has less force than a resolution - expressing dismay at the deaths of the peacekeepers after days of fierce debate.
US opposition resulted in a final draft that was significantly different to the version first put forward by China and other countries.
Calls for a joint Israeli-UN investigation into the peacekeepers' death were dropped, as was any direct condemnation of a "deliberate attack against UN personnel".
Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, welcomed the council's "fair and balanced" statement.
Israel has apologised for the deaths of the peacekeepers, who were bombed on Tuesday at their base in southern Lebanon, saying it was an accident.
UN officials said they contacted Israel a dozen times before the bombing, asking them to stop firing, which Israel did not.
China, which lost one of its peacekeepers in the bombing, had been pushing for a harsher condemnation of Israel but the US opposed this.
Beijing's envoy to the UN, Wang Guangya, said in an apparent swipe at the US that members of the Security Council "had to respect each other" and said Washington's stance could have a "negative impact" in the long term.
Mr Wang warned that a Security Council discussion of Iran's alleged nuclear capability, due to take place on Friday, would also be difficult.
"Not all the members share the same view," he said.
Meanwhile, Israel plans to boost the Lebanese campaign by calling up three divisions of reservists, said to number between 15,000 to 40,000.
A statement from an Israeli cabinet meeting said their deployment would only come after an "additional" approval.
Ministers also said current military activities would remain unchanged - despite apparent pressure from the military establishment to step up ground operations.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel's military operation would continue until a secure border strip was set up where Hezbollah could not return to.
Crisis talks
Foreign ministers from key countries - including the US, UK and regional powers - attended emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday.
They did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with the "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
But a high-level EU delegation told Israel the conference had not authorised the campaign.
"The EU's position is that we should have an immediate ceasefire," said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Thousands of civilians have been fleeing attacks on southern Lebanon carried out by Israeli aircraft and ground forces.