Israel widens control of southern Lebanon

AP on Yahoo ^ | 7/25/06 | Lee Keath- ap

[NormsRevenge]

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli troops sealed off a Hezbollah stronghold Tuesday and widened their foothold in southern Lebanon, but officials said Israeli bombs killed six people in a south Lebanon town and two U.N. observers in a border outpost with two other peacekeepers feared dead.

Two weeks into the war, a senior Hezbollah leader said the guerrillas had not expected such an Israeli onslaught when they snatched two Israeli soldiers July 12.

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.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the strike on a clearly marked U.N. border outpost was "apparently deliberate" and demanded Israel investigate. A bomb dropped by an Israel warplane scored a direct hit on the post in the town of Khiyam, near the eastern sector of the border, U.N. officials said.

The victims were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said. It was not immediately known which two were confirmed dead.

Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., called Annan's reaction "deplorable." He said the observers were caught in crossfire between Hezbollah and Israel. If Israel is found to be responsible for the deaths, it was not deliberate, he said.

"To level this accusation that it was deliberate is just outrageous and shocking and I hope he will apologize," Ayalon told CNN.

Israeli commanders said they would not push deep into Lebanon but were determined to stop Hezbollah missiles that have continued despite Israel's punishing raids on Hezbollah targets. A new volley of Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel, killing a teenage girl, and Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, issued a taped television message saying guerrillas would now start firing rockets deeper into Israel.

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.

Israel is facing tougher than expected resistance as it makes it first small ground steps into hilltop villages across the border. Its troops sealed the town of Bint Jbail and battled for a second day Tuesday against around 200 guerrillas inside.

Troops also moved on the nearby village of Yaroun, fighting guerrillas there. Fifteen Americans fled Yaroun in a convoy of 80 cars carrying residents that reached the southern port of Tyre on Tuesday.

Hezbollah reported two guerrillas killed in the day's fighting, while Israel said three of its soldiers were wounded. The Israeli military said Hezbollah's commander for the central border sector, known as Abu Jafr, was killed.

So far the three villages that Israeli ground troops have advanced on — Bint Jbail, Yaroun and Maroun al-Ras, which was seized by soldiers over the weekend — are in a roughly 3-square-mile pocket. Israeli bombardment has also destroyed most Hezbollah observer posts all along the border, U.N. observers say.

Israel suggested that would grow — but the extent was unclear.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would maintain a security zone in the south until either a multinational force "with enforcement capability" is deployed on the border or Hezbollah is pushed back in a cease-fire agreement that also cuts off the supply of its weapons.

Israeli army commanders said Israeli ground troops would not push deep into Lebanon, but instead aim to kill as many Hezbollah fighters as possible and push others away from the border.

"We are very much dealing with the villages and towns close to the border," Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan said. "Our aim is not to occupy the territory."

Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut on Tuesday for the first time in nearly two days after pausing during Rice's stopover in the Lebanese capital. A string of huge explosions raised a pall of smoke from Beirut's southern districts, and Israel said it was hitting 10 Hezbollah residences.

In a pre-dawn raid, Israeli warplanes destroyed two neighboring houses in Nabatiyeh, which is 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.'"

Komati said 25 of its fighters had been killed as of Monday, and the group said two more died in ground fighting Tuesday — raising the previously announced toll of 11. Later in the day, Hezbollah, announced the deaths of two more fighters, bringing the toll to at least 27.

Israel claims Hezbollah is greatly underreporting its casualties and says dozens have died.

Despite estimates of the number of Hezbollah militants that Israel claims were killed and the number that Hezbollah asserts were killed, there was no way to accurately determine the number or often distinguish between civilians and fighters.

Along with its daily press reports tracking major violence, the U.N. observers along the Israel-Lebanese border, known as the Blue Line, keep close track of individual incidents.

Those figures, which do not include attacks far to the north, give a rare snapshot into the intensity of the violence in southern Lebanon.

There were, for example, at least 73 acts of violence near the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon on July 24 alone, including 45 air raids and artillery strikes by Israel and 12 missile launches from Hezbollah.

That was in addition to numerous clashes around the town of Bint Jbail, a town known for its intense support of Hezbollah.

___

AP correspondents Hamza Hendawi in Nabatiyeh and Sheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut contributed to this story.

[NormsRevenge]

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah speaks on Hezbollah's al-Manar television Wednesday, July 26, 2006 in this image taken from TV. Nasrallah said Wednesday that Israel's two-week-long military offensive against Lebanon was linked to a U.S.-Israeli plan for 'a new Middle East,' a term used repeatedly by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her just concluded visit to the region. The Shiite cleric also vowed that his fighters would now begin firing rockets deeper into Israel, beyond the northern port city of Haifa which has suffered under hundreds of Hezbollah barrages. Writing on the blue background reads: 'Sheikh Nasrallah: All those who came with American dictates presented no compromises or solutions for the crises.' (AP Photo/al-Manar Television)

[NormsRevenge]

Latest Lebanon-Israel developments
The Associated Press

Developments Tuesday in the Middle East:

• Israeli troops sealed off the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbail in fierce fighting in south Lebanon, and warplanes killed six people in the market city of Nabatiyeh. Beirut was pounded by new airstrikes.

• At least 40 rockets were fired at northern Israel, and a teenage girl was killed and three other people were injured in the Israeli Arab town of Maghar. One rocket fired at Haifa hit a bus, another hit a house and two reportedly struck close to a hospital, injuring five people, witnesses and doctors said.

• A senior Israeli army commander said Israel would only encircle Lebanese towns and villages near the border and did not plan a deeper push into the country. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel has the stamina for "a long struggle" and is determined to defeat Hezbollah.

• President Bush, appearing with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the White House, 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.

• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after meeting separately with Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, declared the United States wants an "urgent and enduring" peace where problems are solved without war. "It is time for a new Middle East," she said.

• The first shipment of American aid for Lebanon arrived in Beirut, and Israel promised to open vital safe passages as humanitarian groups pushed more convoys of supplies to tens of thousands in the south.

• Hundreds of Americans and Russians 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.

• Jordan's foreign minister said Arabs meeting in Rome on Wednesday will insist on an immediate cease-fire and for the Lebanese government to take control over Hezbollah. Saudi King Abdullah appealed to the world to stop the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, saying that if peace moves fail, the Middle East could be engulfed in war.

• Germany's defense minister said a cease-fire must be in place before an international mission to Lebanon can be contemplated. An official in Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, said it would consider playing a major role in a peacekeeping force.

• A top Hamas official in Syria said Israeli soldiers held by Hamas and Hezbollah will only be released as part of a prisoner swap.

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that the conflict could trigger "a hurricane" of broader fighting in the Middle East.

[Tai_Chung]

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the strike on a clearly marked U.N. border outpost was "apparently deliberate" and demanded Israel investigate.

This would be a good opportunity for Israel to highlight to the world how ineffective the UN has become in Lebanon. They need to show how many attacks were with UN euipment, cover, uniforms, trucks, ambulances, etc.

[winner3000]

(Along with its daily press reports tracking major violence, the U.N. observers along the Israel-Lebanese border, known as the Blue Line, keep close track of individual incidents.)

Do they need 1,000 troops (a quarter of their budget paid by the US) to count incidents and count the dead? One bookkeeper should get the job done!

[Logical me]

Key issues were how to disarm Hezbollah and assemble an international peacekeeping force to enforce the peace along the Israel-Lebanon frontier.

Not good enough. Kick Hezbollah the he!! out of Lebanon. That should be the only concession to end the conflict. Anything short of that would be a stupid mistake. The same goes for a peacekeeping force. This so called force never has done anything in the past to keep the peace. Always takes someone to win the conflict and after this force gets in, the peace goes to he!!.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And this just reported:

Hezbollah Vows Rockets Deeper Into Israel

[Schwaeky]

why is Nasrallah still alive??? the Israelis whacked Sheik Yassin (Hamas spiritual leader), they should rub out the spiritual, political, and military leadership in Hezbollah as well... Decapitation (figuratively not literally) to destroy the organization, and cut out the roots of its power--Iran and Syria...