Israel steps up strikes on targets in Beirut

[Laz]

Olmert tells Annan that offensive won't end until Hezbollah is disarmed

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 30 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israel tightened its seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside world and bringing its offensive to the capital for the first time Friday in order to punish Hezbollah — and with it, the country — for the capture of two Israeli soldiers.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not halt its offensive until Hezbollah was disarmed. He made the comment in a telephone call with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Israeli government officials said.

Olmert agreed to let a U.N. team come in and try to mediate a cease-fire, an official close to Olmert said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

[ct]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/72BAC422-6079-419C-9DD1-2FCBF21FDA5E.htm

Saudi sideswipe at Hezbollah

Friday 14 July 2006, 19:18 Makka Time, 16:18 GMT

Saudi Arabia has blamed "elements" inside Lebanon for the violence with Israel, in unusually frank language directed at Hezbollah and its Iranian backers.

"A distinction must be made between legitimate resistance and uncalculated adventures undertaken by elements inside [Lebanon] and those behind them without recourse to the legal authorities and consulting and co-ordinating with Arab nations," a statement carried by the official news agency SPA said.

"These elements should bear the responsibility for their irresponsible actions and they alone should end the crisis they have created."

Israel struck Beirut airport and military airbases and blockaded Lebanese ports on Thursday, intensifying reprisals that have killed 55 civilians in Lebanon since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.

Israel struck Beirut airport and military airbases and blockaded Lebanese ports on Thursday, intensifying reprisals that have killed 55 civilians in Lebanon since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers a day earlier.

"They [the elements] are exposing Arab nations and their gains to grave dangers without these nations having a say in the matter," said the statement, which reiterated Saudi support for Palestinian and Lebanese resistance against Israeli occupation.

The statement did not make clear what it meant by the gains of Arab nations.

Criticism of some Arab resistance movements, which act without consulting any Arab government, have been the focus of some Saudi press coverage lately.


Escalation


The Israeli army said Hezbollah fighters fired more than 100 rockets at northern Israel in their heaviest bombardment in 10 years, hitting Israel's third-largest city, Haifa. Hezbollah, a group backed by Iran and Syria, denied that it had fired on the port city.

Arab governments have agreed to send their foreign ministers to Cairo for an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

But the 22-member league has not yet made specific proposals for a joint Arab response to the Israeli attacks.

[FringeNC]

It's a shame what has happened to Lebanon. Before it became a Syrian-satellite, Beirut was the Paris (and Las Vegas) of the Middle East.

Once the Christians lost control, it went to shit.

It's funny how the left was silent about the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Syria has always had an anti-American, anti-Semitic dictator as leader, so that explains why it got a free-ride from UN and all the other lefties.

[ct]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,203453,00.html

Israeli Raids Target Hezbollah in Beirut

Friday, July 14, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israeli warplanes destroyed the building housing the headquarters of Hezbollah guerrillas in south Beirut Friday, the group's TV station reported. Israeli sources said the chief of Hezbollah Sheik Hassam Nasrallah was inside the building at the time.

Smoke rose from the Haret Hreik neighborhood late afternoon, after four huge explosions shook the Lebanese capital. They were followed minutes later by a fifth blast.

Earlier Friday, Israeli warplanes targeted a radio station belonging to Hezbollah in Beirut, but the radio continued its broadcasts. Attacks also set fuel tanks on fire at Beirut's airport, destroyed mountain bridges and cut off the main highway to Damascus.

Hezbollah guerrillas retaliated for the airstrikes by launching a continuous barrage of Katyusha rockets across the border, hitting more than a dozen communities in northern Israel and wounding at least eight people.

In Haifa, residents were ordered into bomb shelters Friday afternoon after being free to move around the streets throughout the day. The Israeli army declined to elaborate on why the order was given a day after two Katyusha rockets slammed into the city.

The United States began diplomatic efforts to end the crisis after the third day of cross-border violence that was sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah guerrilla group.

U.S. President George W. Bush called Lebanon's prime minister, promising to press Israel to halt its attacks on Lebanon.

"President Bush affirmed his readiness to put pressure on Israel to limit the damage to Lebanon as a result of the current military action, and to spare civilians from harm," Fuad Saniora Saniora said in a statement. There was no immediate U.S. confirmation of the promise. Bush also spoke with Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak.

On Thursday, Bush said he supported Israel's right to defend itself, but also expressed worries the assault could lead to the fall of Saniora's Western-supported, anti-Syrian government -- some of whose members oppose Hezbollah.

• Bush: Israel Has the Right to Defend Itself

In Lebanon, 61 people have been killed in Israel's bombardment, mostly Lebanese civilians -- including three who died in bombing of south Beirut early Friday, police said. On the Israeli side, eight soldiers have died and two civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets on northern towns.

Israel's offensive had several goals: to pressure Hezbollah to release the Israeli soldiers, to push the guerrilla group away from Israel's northern border and to exact a price from Lebanon's government for allowing Hezbollah to operate freely in the south.

• EU, U.N. to Send Envoys to Middle East

At the United Nations in New York, Lebanon accused Israel on Friday of launching "a widespread barbaric aggression" aimed at bringing the small Mideast nation to its knees and urged the international community to end the military offensive.

Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman told the Security Council that Israel had no choice but to react to the "absolutely unprovoked attack" by Hezbollah, which included rocket attacks into Israel.

"Israel's actions were in response to an act of war from Lebanon," he said, stressing that it was concentrated mainly on Hezbollah strongholds.

Throughout the morning, Israeli fighter-bombers pounded runways at Beirut's airport for a second day, apparently trying to ensure it was shut down after the Lebanese national carrier, Middle East Airlines, managed to evacuate its last five planes to Amman despite earlier strikes. One rocket hit close to the terminal building at the building.

CountryWatch: Lebanon

Another barrage hit fuel tanks at one of Beirut's two main power stations, at Jiye. Some parts of the capital were already seeing electricity outages before the strike, which was likely to worsen power shortages.

For the first time in the assault, strikes targeted residential neighborhoods in south Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah's leadership. Warplanes rained missiles on roads in the capital's suburbs, knocking down an overpass and damaging another.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli military spokesman's office said the Hezbollah security headquarters in the neighborhood was targeted in the airstrikes -- but an AP photographer at the scene saw no sign of damage to the building Friday morning, and Hezbollah media chief Hussein Rahal said it had not been hit.

• Israeli Shelling of Northern Gaza Kills One

Instead, the facades of nearby apartment buildings were shorn away, balconies toppled on to cars below and glass from shattered windows littered the street. Firemen struggled to put out several fires.

A young man with blood pouring down his face was shown on Lebanese TV walking out of a damaged apartment building.

"I have huge debts and now my store is damaged," said Fadi Haidar, 36, cleaning away broken glass at his appliances shop, which he said had taken up to $15,000 in damage from the airstrikes.

Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Mideast center.

Still, he supported Hezbollah and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, in their decision to snatch the soldiers. "Israel is our enemy and every Muslim must make a sacrifice," he said. "As time goes by, they will all realize that Sayyed Nasrallah is right and is working in the interest of Muslims."

In northern Israel, some 220,000 people hunkered down in bomb shelters amid Hezbollah's barrage of rockets.

At least 20 rockets hit the towns of Safad and Nahariya -- where two people were killed a day earlier, as well as the town of Hatzor and the communities of Nurit and Ezen Menahem. At least eight people were wounded, bringing to 58 the number of Israelis hurt in the rocket fire since Wednesday.

• Americans in Lebanon Urged Not to Travel

Many Israelis were shocked Thursday when two rockets hit Haifa, the country's third largest city and 18 miles south of Lebanon. No guerrilla rocket had ever reached that far into Israel.

In Lebanon, Israeli warplanes blasted the highway between Beirut and Damascus -- Lebanon's main land lin to the outside world -- forcing motorists to take mountain side roads to the Syrian capital. Warships also shelled the coastal highway north of Sidon, slowing down traffic considerably but not actually cutting the road, witnesses reported.

• Israeli Jets Bomb Main Road Between Beirut and Damascus

Israeli planes also hit transmission antennas for local TV stations in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold. Anwar Raja of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command said the planes struck the communications towers, but did not hit the guerrillas' base at Qousaya.

The Israeli offensive was causing political waves in Lebanon, with some anti-Syrian politicians accusing Hezbollah of acting unilaterally and dragging the country into a costly confrontation with Israel.

"Hezbollah is playing a dangerous game that exceeds the border of Lebanon," Druse leader Walid Jumblatt said in comments published Friday.

But Jumblatt, a leading anti-Syrian figure, also denounced the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, calling them completely unjustified.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[DaKCMan AP]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast...east/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/14/mideast/index.html)

Rockets fly into Israel as it pounds Lebanon

Reports: Hezbollah leader safe after Israeli airstrikes


BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israeli warships and aircraft were clamping down on Lebanon's air, sea and land infrastructure on Friday, three days after Hezbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

Israeli warplanes destroyed a building housing the headquarters of Hezbollah guerrillas in south Beirut late Friday, The Associated Press reported. The AP said the group's TV station reported the strike.

Hezbollah says its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, and his family are safe after Israeli airstrikes, according to AP.

Israeli rescue services report a large barrage of rockets hitting northern Israel late Friday. Also, three explosions have been heard in Beirut.

The rocket attacks on Israel have prompted Israel's Cabinet to approve continued military operations in Lebanon, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

In the past two days, about 200 rockets have been fired from Lebanon at Israeli targets, according to The Associated Press.

On Thursday, two missiles fired from Lebanon hit the center of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city -- extending beyond the range of any missiles fired at Israel from Lebanon in the past.

Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Dan Gillerman said many missiles that have been fired from Lebanon toward the northern Israel were made in Iran. (Watch Israeli fires, rubble, wounded from rocket attacks -- 2:08 (http://java%20script:cnnVideo('play','/video/world/2006/07/14/vause.hezbollah.strikes.ap','2006/07/21');))

Many of the long-range missiles fired into Israel in the recent days were Iranian missiles made by the same regime that is now trying to possess nuclear weapons," Gillerman said at the U.N. on Friday.

When asked by CNN what role Syria or Iran may have played in the current crisis, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said it would be "strange" for Hezbollah to have "done this alone."

However, Hezbollah guerrillas denied firing the two rockets, which had a range longer than previous missiles fired at Israel from Lebanon.

Haifa residents have been urged Friday to seek safety in bomb shelters, The Associated Press reported.

Siniora called the crisis a "controlled war," and described it as an opportunity for the region to address the Israeli-Palestinian problem that has existed since 1948, when Israel was created. (Watch Lebanon's prime minister describe how bad his crisis is -- 5:00 (http://java%20script:cnnVideo('play','/video/world/2006/07/14/lebanon.pm.interview.cnn','2006/07/21');))

Israeli forces Friday hit Lebanese highways and renewed attacks on Beirut's international airport, crippling a runway.

Israeli aircraft also carried out more airstrikes on a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut and an airstrike on Hezbollah's radio station, Reuters reported, wounding at least one person. The radio station, al-Nour, remained on the air, the news agency said.

Siniora called on President Bush and other world leaders to press Israel to halt the attacks.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday that Bush declined Siniora's request, adding: "The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," Reuters reported.

Bush "believes the Israelis have the right to protect themselves and that in doing that they should limit as much as possible so-called collateral damage not only to facilities but also to human lives", Snow said, according to Reuters.

Olmert said Israel would not halt its offensive until Hezbollah was disarmed, AP reported. He made the comment in a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Israeli government officials said.

Rockets on Friday hit the town of Yesod Hamaalah, the army and Israeli rescue services said.

Police reported that Katyusha rockets were hitting towns in northern Israel -- five rockets hit Nahariya, five struck Safed, two hit Hatzor and four hit Pqui'in. Also, the IDF reported a barrage of Katyusha rockets had hit Kiryat Shmona.

Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel have killed two people, the IDF said, and more than 100 Israelis have been wounded in the attacks.

Israel launched the military operation against Hezbollah after the group's militants killed three Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others from northern Israel on Wednesday. Five more Israeli soldiers have been killed since.

Since the fighting began, Israeli attacks on what it sees as Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have killed at least 63 Lebanese people, including two soldiers, and wounded 167 others, Lebanon's internal security forces told CNN on Friday.

Diplomatic efforts to calm the crisis resumed at the United Nations Security Council in New York, at the convening of an "urgent meeting."

Before Friday's bombing of Beirut airport, the United States helped broker an unusual deal that allowed a runway at the Beirut airport to be repaired long enough to allow a private aircraft carrying former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Nakati and five planes from Middle East Airlines to take off.

Israel's navy continued its blockade of Lebanese ports, including Tripoli, Sidon and Tyre.

Overnight, IDF warplanes attacked 18 targets in Lebanon, including the headquarters for the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in east Lebanon.

Israeli planes also attacked Hezbollah headquarters in southern Beirut overnight, according to IDF. Bridges and roads leading to the offices were destroyed in the operation.

Along the Israel-Lebanon border, IDF attacked two Hezbollah outposts, a weapons storage facility used by militants and three fuel stations south of Sidon.

Despite several countries -- including the United States and Lebanon -- contending that Lebanon doesn't have the capacity to extend its authority into Hezbollah-held territory, Israel has blamed the Lebanese government for the violence and charged it with the safe release of the soldiers.

Hezbollah, which enjoys substantial backing from Syria and Iran, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel. The group holds 23 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament. (Watch as fighting along the border intensifies -- 1:45 (http://java%20script:cnnVideo('play','/video/world/2006/07/13/hancocks.israel.lebanon.crisis.ap','2006/07/20');))
AP: Hundreds of Palestinians enter Gaza

Palestinian militants forced open a border gate between Egypt and Gaza on Friday, AP reported, wounding an Egyptian officer before letting hundreds of people who had been trapped on the Egyptian side of the border to get into Gaza.

Egyptian police Capt. Mohammed Abdel Hadi said masked Palestinian militants firing guns broke into the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, clearing the way for the trapped Gazans, according to AP.

The report came after Israel Defense Forces said it withdrew troops from central Gaza Friday but Israeli troops remained in the southern part of the territory.

The army had been in central Gaza trying to find an Israeli soldier kidnapped June 25 and to quell rocket attacks against Israeli citizens.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press (http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP) contributed to this report.

[ct]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2611F642-A664-40FE-8BA2-FA698BDA0ED1.htm

UN snubs Lebanese plea


Friday 14 July 2006, 20:14 Makka Time, 17:14 GMT


An appeal by Lebanon to the UN Security Council for a ceasefire order against increasingly fierce Israeli raids on its territory has fallen on deaf ears.


Nouhad Mahmoud, a Lebanese foreign ministry official, made his plea at an emergency session of the 15-nation council.

But members said they planned no immediate action apart from a statement welcoming a decision by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, to send a team to the region to encourage restraint.

The United States vetoed a resolution on Thursday drafted by Arab nations calling on Israel to end a separate two-week military incursion in Gaza.

John Bolton, the US ambassador, called the measure "not only untimely, but already outmoded" and biased against Israel.

Mahmoud said Israel's actions against his country were "aimed at bringing Lebanon to its knees and subverting it by any means".

"I do not need to explain to you here who the victim is and who the aggressor is," he said.

He asked the council "to take an immediate and clear decision calling for a comprehensive, immediate ceasefire, a lifting of the air and sea blockade imposed upon Lebanon and calling for an end to Israeli aggression".

However, Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, said the Lebanese government had brought trouble on itself by allowing the resistance movement Hezbollah to remain armed.

He said this gave it de facto control over southern Lebanon and enabled it to cross the border to seize two Israeli soldiers.

'Axis of terror'

"Lebanon is today occupied by terror," he said, accusing Hezbollah of comprising "an axis of terror" along with Hamas, the governing Palestinian group, and Syria and Iran, which he said supported Hamas and Hezbollah.

He urged Lebanon to extend its authority across all of its territory "and exercise sovereignty over a free Lebanon".

Ibrahim Gambari, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, said that escalation was "in no one's interest".

"The space for diplomatic initiative is quickly closing," he said.

[Laz]

Hezbollah leader just said "you want open war, we'll give you open war"



whether he can actually do anything. :shrug:

[DaKCMan AP]

wow..

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20060714/2006_07_14t131736_450x298_us_mideast.jpg?x=380&y=251&sig=cf9PKMhs7f7xa65j8N_dkA--

[ct]

wow..



Pretty sweet graphics! What game is that?

[ct]

Hezbollah leader just said "you want open war, we'll give you open war"

whether he can actually do anything. :shrug:

He probably can't wage much of a 'war', but his allies certainly can. My bet is Syria and Iran quickly leave him hangin out to dry.

[Donger]

Pretty sweet graphics! What game is that?

Don't F*ck With Israel: Episode Six.

[ct]

Don't F*ck With Israel: Episode Six.

heh, nice

[Radar Chief]

Hezbollah leader just said "you want open war, we'll give you open war"



whether he can actually do anything. :shrug:

The last thing’e really wants is to openly confront Israel. Exposing their positions would only get’em slaughtered.
They’re much better off hide’n under rocks ‘till they can set off a bomb in a crowd of women and children like they normally do.

[Cochise]

The last thing’e really wants is to openly confront Israel. Exposing their positions would only get’em slaughtered.
They’re much better off hide’n under rocks ‘till they can set off a bomb in a crowd of women and children like they normally do.

You're right, they need to keep taking civilians hostage, slaughtering children in schools (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma'alot_massacre), and throwing handicapped guys into the sea.

[Iowanian]

I think Hezbollah and Hamas should all form in division lines in an open field and meet Israel at 20 paces.

Instead, like all terrorists, they'll talk shit with a mask on their face, and then hide in a room full of women and children.