Israel strikes Beirut airport, blocks ports

[A.Rahman]

Israel strikes Beirut airport, blocks ports

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israeli aircraft bombed Beirut International Airport on Thursday before blocking naval traffic in Lebanese waters as Israel expanded its military campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas who kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

Israel Defense Forces said the aim of the naval blockade, announced at midday, was to "block the transfer of terrorists and weaponry."

Earlier, Israeli fighter jets bombed all three runways at Beirut's main airport -- located in the city's southern suburbs -- rendering them unusable, according to the IDF and a Lebanese aviation official. As a result, the airport was closed and flights were diverted to nearby Cyprus, the official said.

IDF said it targeted the airport because it serves as a central hub for the transfer for weapons and supplies to Hezbollah. (Watch first reports on runway bombings -- 6:00)

Israeli Security Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog said: "We are taking strong measures so that it will be clear to the Lebanese people and government ... that we mean business."

Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat called the airport strikes a "general act of war," saying they had nothing to do with Hezbollah, but were instead an attack against the country's "economic interests," especially its tourism industry.

The airport, which is located in Beirut's southern suburbs, was renamed Rafic Hariri International Airport last year after the former prime minister who was assassinated in the Lebanese capital.

Another airstrike, on al-Manar television station, was carried out because the station is used by Hezbollah to incite and recruit activists, according to IDF.

Despite the strike, al-Manar continued to broadcast, a Lebanese security source said.

'Severe and harsh response'
The Israeli airstrikes came hours after Israel's Cabinet authorized a "severe and harsh" response to the abduction of the two soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the attack and abductions were an "act of war" and blamed the Lebanese government, which he said would be held responsible for the soldiers' safe release.

Israeli artillery and airstrikes have been pounding Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after a cross-border raid Wednesday took the two captives. In all, eight Israeli soldiers were killed -- three in the initial raid and five others in the fighting that immediately followed, according to the IDF.

The cross-border fighting continued Thursday, with numerous Katyusha rocket strikes in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, according to CNN's John Vause. He said buildings near the hotel he was staying in have been damaged.

Thursday's casualties throughout northern Israel totaled 29, including one woman killed and 15 injured in the Nahariya rocket attack, according to the IDF.

The Lebanese security source said 26 to 27 people had been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, including a number of civilians.

The Israeli military said one of its airstrikes on Thursday hit a Hezbollah operational command center in southern Lebanon.

IDF said its strikes have been targeting locations within or adjacent to heavily populated areas that Hezbollah uses for storing rockets and weapons. An IDF spokesman said Hezbollah is responsible for placing the storage sites in areas that would put civilians at risk.

Hezbollah, an Islamic militia backed by Syria and Iran, demanded "direct negotiations" for a prisoner exchange to resolve the crisis. Israel has rejected that call, arguing it would lead to more attacks.

"We expect them to be returned to us alive and safely, immediately without any precondition -- no negotiation," Israeli government spokesman Gideon Meir told CNN.

The identities of the kidnapped soldiers had not been released as of Thursday morning.

Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, but the Islamic militia is a significant player in Lebanon's fractious politics. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, told reporters that abducting the soldiers was "our natural, only and logical right" to win freedom for Hezbollah prisoners held by Israel.

Nasrallah said the two soldiers had been taken to a place "far, far away" and that an Israeli military campaign would not win their release.

The new fighting on Israel's northern border comes amid a two-week-old Israeli campaign in Gaza in search of Israeli army Cpl. Gilad Shalit, a soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants there. (Watch how kidnapping has brought region to brink of war

 

[A.Rahman]

DF Ground Troops in Lebanon
12:16 Jul 12, '06 / 16 Tammuz 5766
(IsraelNN.com) The IDF has send ground troops and tanks into southern Lebanon to search for the two soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists Wednesday morning. The military establishment also is preparing to call up reservists.
Air Force planes have bombed bridges in southern Lebanon in an effort to prevent the terrorists from fleeing into central Lebanon.

IAF attacks 30 targets in southern Lebanon


IDF sources reported that the Israel Air Force has attacked more than 30 targets in southern Lebanon since Wednesday morning.

Earlier, the Al-Arabia news agency reported that IAF planes were circling over the Lebanese capital of Beirut. According to another report, from Lebanese news agency, LBC, the IAF attacked Hizbullah targets in Tyre, in southern Lebanon. (Hanan Greenberg)
Zionists invade southern Lebanon
04:15:40 È.Ù
The Zionist regime invaded southern Lebanon in a ground and air aggression on Wednesday following the seizure of tow of its soldiers by the Lebanese Islamic Resistence Movement.
The seizure made Zionist Regime's Prime Minister mad as he ordered aircraft and artillery pound civilian targets in southern Lebanon in which one Lebanese was killed.
Hezbollah, which forced Zionist troops out of Lebanon six years ago and which is spiritualy supported by brave Muslims across the world, demanded the release of its prisoners in exchange for the soldiers.
Extraordinary Arab League meeting to be held Saturday in Cairo
CAIRO, July 13 (KUNA) -- The Arab League will hold an extraordinary foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the Israeli military escalations against Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, a statement by the league said today.
Extensive diplomatic contacts on the highest levels among Arab states have led to the decision of holding the meeting.
Secretary General of the Arab League, Amre Moussa, had said yesterday that consultations are ongoing to hold an urgent session for Arab foreign ministers to discuss the situation in Lebanon.
Israel tells Lebanon to evacuate suburb
The Israeli army has warned Lebanon to evacuate all residents from a southern Beirut neighbourhood where it believes Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lives, Israeli media report.
The army had no comment on whether Nasrallah was a target for assassination, although one minister said no one was immune after a cross-border raid by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas who seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.
"We have passed on a warning to Lebanon to evacuate all civilians from the (southern) neighbourhood of Beirut, which is a Hezbollah stronghold and where Nasrallah lives, and where the organisation's headquarters and weapons stockpiles are," the Maariv NRG news website quoted a senior army official as saying.
Israel Radio carried a similar report.
Hundreds of thousands of mostly impoverished Shiites, who originally came from south Lebanon, live in Beirut's teeming southern suburbs.
A vast majority support Hezbollah.
Asked later on Israel Radio if Nasrallah could be assassinated after Wednesday's attack by Hezbollah, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said "anyone who acts against the state of Israel... is a target".
Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres says Israel's actions are necessary.
"We reached a point that we have had to tell the Hezbollah in a language the Hezbollah can understand, that there is a limit to everything," he said.
"There is a limit to killing, to taking hostages and to endanger the lives of Israeli citizens for no reason."
Hezbollah vow
But Lebanon's Hezbollah group has vowed to bombard Israel's third-largest city of Haifa if Israel attacks targets in Beirut or its southern suburbs.
Israeli aircraft earlier attacked Beirut's international airport, and now naval vessels are blockading Lebanese ports.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Dan Guillerman, says the security of Israel's borders is a priority.
"Israel will react in in everyway possible to secure its border and to guard the safety of its people and to secure the release of its prisoners," he said.
"We see, and I reiterate, the government of Lebanon as the responsible party to deal with it."
Bush
US President George W Bush has urged the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to help pressure Hezbollah to release the abducted Israeli soldiers.
But speaking in Germany after a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Bush warned Israel not to take any steps that might undermine the government in Lebanon.
"Israel has the right to defend herself," he said.
"Every nation must defend herself against terrorist attacks. and the killing of innocent life. Whatever Israel does though should not weaken the government in Lebanon."
Australians
Meanwhile, the mother of two Australians caught up in the violence is worried they will not get help because the Australian embassy in Beirut has been temporarily closed because of the escalating violence.
Rosemary Diodarty's sons are part of a group of up to 80 Australians in Beirut, and she says they are not sure what to do.
"They're, I mean they're kids, they're got no money, they've got no language, sudden turmoil," she said.
"Had it been midnight last night it might have been okay, but as I said they were supposed to fly out at 8 o'clock at night, 10 o'clock our time."
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is also advising Australians not to travel to Lebanon.
People concerned about relatives in the area are being advised to contact them directly or phone 1300 555 135.
- AFP/Reuters

 

[A.Rahman]

Israel steps up bombardment
ISRAEL continued to pound Lebanon from the land, sea and air today a day after two soldiers were snatched by Hezbollah guerrillas setting off a spiral of violence that has left 12 people dead.
The Hezbollah raid on an army patrol on the volatile border was branded an "act of war" by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who moved quickly to authorise an "aggressive and harsh" Israeli response.
Eight Israeli soldiers, along with a Hezbollah fighter, two Lebanese civilians and a Lebanese soldier have been killed in the deadliest 24 hours of fighting since Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon six years ago.
Israeli helicopters carried out three successive dawn raids north of the port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, police said, without immediately mentioning whether there were victims.
A Lebanese soldier was killed overnight when Israeli war planes took out a bridge south of Beirut.
The White House held Syria and Iran responsible for the flare-up, as world powers urgently appealed for restraint.
Hezbollah, or the Party of God, whose militia was instrumental in forcing Israeli troops out of Lebanon in May 2000, said it was demanding the release of Arab prisoners in return for the soldiers.
"They will only return home through indirect negotiations and an exchange of prisoners," Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said, saying the abduction was aimed at drawing international attention to the plight of "thousands of Lebanese, Palestinian and Arab detainees."
But Mr Olmert insisted there would be no negotiations.
"This was an act of war without any provocation on the sovereign territory... of the state of Israel," said Mr Olmert, facing the most serious test of his leadership since his government took office in May.
Israeli fighter jets, gunboats and artillery pounded Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah targets and about 10 bridges, cutting off the highway linking Beirut to the south.
After an emergency meeting, the Israeli cabinet gave the green light to unspecified retaliatory action against Lebanon, which has been mired in its own political crisis since the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005 and is still rebuilding after the devastating 1975-1990 civil war.
"Israel must respond with the necessary severity to this act of aggression... Israel will respond aggressively and harshly to those who carried out, and are responsible for, today's action," a cabinet statement said.
Army chief Dan Halutz vowed on Israeli television to "take Lebanon back 20 years."
Israel has already called up a rapid-reaction force of 6000 troops headed for the northern border, where many residents were heading for bunkers to escape mortars and Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah at the Jewish state.
The Lebanese government - which includes a Hezbollah minister - denied any involvement in the Hezbollah action and demanded an urgent UN Security Council meeting.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora also called up a host of world leaders "to ask them to help Lebanon in the face of the aggression and in order to contain the situation."
Yemen also called for an emergency meeting of the 22-member Arab League.
The White House, which considers Hezbollah a terrorist outfit, condemned the capture of the soldiers and pointed the finger at Israel's two main foes, Iran and Syria, which both bankroll the fundamentalist Shiite movement.
"We call for the immediate and unconditional release of the two soldiers. We also hold Syria and Iran, which directly support Hezbollah, responsible for this attack and for the ensuing violence," said national security spokesman Frederick Jones.
Washington also defended Israel's ground incursion into Lebanon -- the first since the 2000 pullout, saying its chief Middle East ally was entitled to defend itself against "terrorist" attacks.
UN chief Kofi Annan urged all sides to show restraint and to protect civilians.
Lebanese police said two civilians and a soldier were killed and 26 people wounded in Israeli reprisal attacks.
Hezbollah later claimed a pair of mortar attacks on the army's headquarters along the Lebanese border, but the military said no one was injured.
News of the captured soldiers was greeted with celebratory gunfire across the southern suburbs of Beirut - a Hezbollah stronghold - while some residents handed out candy to passing motorists .
"Long live Hezbollah, death to Israel," chanted youths.
The governing Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, whose military wing is one of three groups holding another soldier captive in Gaza, said the latest abductions showed the "weakness of the Israeli army."
Israel has been on high alert for possible retaliation following its threats to kill Hamas leaders in Damascus and since it sent warplanes over a Syrian presidential palace in a show of force last month.
The return of Israeli troops to Gaza 10 months after the army ended a 38-year-occupation has already evoked painful memories of its disastrous full-scale invasion of Lebanon in 1982 where soldiers became bogged down in a deadly quagmire before finally leaving.
Yesterday's flare-up on the northern border came shortly after Israeli tanks and troops pushed a new offensive in Gaza, killing 23 people, including nine members of the same family in an air strike on the home of a Hamas leader.
Early today it also fired missiles at the foreign ministry in Gaza, witnesses said.
Israel has launched wave after wave of air strikes in Gaza in a bid to secure the release of an Israeli corporal and stop rocket attacks.
Gilad Shalit was captured in an attack by three groups including the armed wing of Hamas - which is branded a terrorist movement by Israel and the West.
The groups have demanded the release of 1000 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and other prisoners but Israel has refused to negotiate.
The latest abductions and killings of Israeli soldiers are likely to raise embarrassing questions about the Jewish state's military, which considers itself one of the strongest in the world.
A columnist in Israel's Haaretz newspaper called the Hezbollah attack "a ringing failure for the IDF," an acronym for the Israeli army.
In January 2004, Israel and Hezbollah carried out a swap through German mediation that saw hundreds of Arab detainees released, the return of the bodies of three soldiers, and the freeing of an Israeli businessman.
Israel imposes Lebanon blockade; air campaign heaviest in 24 years
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Israel is following up its heaviest air campaign against Lebanon in 24 years with an air and sea blockade following cross-border attacks by Lebanese Hezbollah guerillas.
Israeli planes blasted the country's only international airport and the Hezbollah T-V station.
Israeli attacks in south Lebanon alone killed 26 civilians and wounded dozens more. Lebanese security officials say a family of ten and another family of seven were killed in their homes.
Meantime, an Israeli woman died and at least five people were wounded when Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas fired volleys of rockets at northern Israel today. Across Israeli border towns, thousands of residents spent the night in underground shelters. Patients at a hospital were moved to secure rooms.
The military operations follow Hezbollah's bold attack that captured two Israeli soldiers.

Bush Says Israel has Right to Defend Itself
STRALSUND, Germany (Reuters) - President Bush said on Thursday that Israel had a right to defend itself against terrorist acts but it should not weaken the Beirut government.
``Israel has the right to defend herself,'' Bush told a news conference after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. ``Secondly, whatever Israel does should not weaken the...government in Lebanon.''
Israel intensified reprisals against Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon on Thursday, hitting Beirut airport and blockading Lebanese ports in retaliation for an attack a day earlier in which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two taken hostage.
The violence is the worst between Israel and Lebanon since 1996 when Israeli troops still occupied part of the south.

 

[A.Rahman]

Saudi Arabia blames Hizbollah in Lebanon crisis
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Thursday blamed "elements" inside Lebanon for the violence with Israel, in unusually frank language directed at guerrilla group Hizbollah 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 coordinating 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 Hizbollah 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 Arab gains might mean.
The Israeli army said Hizbollah fighters rained more than 100 rockets on northern Israel in their heaviest bombardment in a decade, hitting Israel's third largest city, Haifa. Hizbollah, a group backed by Iran and Syria, denied 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 seen specific proposals for a joint Arab response to the Israeli attacks.
Major Arab governments other than Syria are not expected to give unqualified backing Hizbollah, or the Palestinian militant group Hamas which is holding an Israeli soldier hostage.
Israel attacks Beirut airport again
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Fuel tank fires are lighting the night sky at Beirut's airport.
Israeli helicopters have unleashed a second attack on Lebanon's only international airport. Officials say one gunship raked the fuel depot with machine gun fire while three others fired missiles.
The escalated Israeli attack is one of hundreds that the army says it is using against a militant infrastructure in Lebanon.
The airport assault came after a Katyusha rocket hit deeper into Israeli territory than ever before, striking the port city of Haifa -- an attack denied by a Hezbollah deputy.
In all, more than 50 people have died since two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah fighters yesterday.
Israel targets main road to Syria
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Israeli warplanes have struck the highway linking Beirut to the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Fighter jets attacked a highway section in the mountains of central Lebanon. But Lebanese security officials say it's an old road extension, and the bridge on the nearby main highway remains intact. Another airstrike has apparently targeted the main bridge's exit.
Authorities say as a precautionary measure they're turning back motorists, who will now have to take long detours through other winding mountain roads.
The highway, which climbs up from Beirut, winds through the mountains before descending into the Bekaa Valley and into Syria. It's one of Lebanon's only links with the outside world since Israeli forces have imposed a sea, air and land blockade of Lebanon.

Syria urges effective, unified Arab stance to curb Israeli aggressions

Syria on Thursday called for an "effective and unified" Arab stance to curb Israel's escalating military operations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara made the remarks while meeting with visiting Chairman of the Political Department of Palestine Liberation Organization Farouq Qaddoumi, the official SANA news agency reported.
"Only a unified and effective Arab stance can rein in the aggressive tendency of Israel in light of the silent and double standards by some international parties toward regional issues," Shara said in a statement cited by SANA.
Tensions in the Middle East region have been heightened as Israel pressed ahead a massive offensive in the Gaza Strip and intensified attacks on Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes pounded Lebanon and the navy blockaded Lebanese sea ports after Lebanese Hizbollah militia kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others on Wednesday.
Israeli forces also entered southern Lebanon to search for the two soldiers.
About 50 Lebanese have been killed so far.
While in the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops pressed ahead a broad operation in a bid to free an Israeli soldier snatched by Palestinian militants on June 25 and halt Palestinian rocket attacks.
Over 80 Palestinians including civilians have been killed since Israel started the grand offensive on June 28.

 

[A.Rahman]

Israel intensifies Lebanon attacks
Israel blasted Beirut's airport and other Lebanese targets Thursday, bringing its air and naval campaign to the doorsteps of the capital and threatening massive retaliation after guerrilla rockets for the first time reached Israel's third-largest city, Haifa.
Israeli soldiers stand behind a mobile artillery piece firing from the Zaura area across the Lebanese frontier July 13, 2006. Israeli soldiers stand behind a mobile artillery piece firing from the Zaura area across the Lebanese frontier July 13, 2006.
Israeli soldiers stand behind a mobile artillery piece firing from the Zaura area across the Lebanese frontier July 13, 2006. [Reuters]
The fighting, which killed 57 people, was a dramatic escalation in the battle between Israel and Hezbollah, an Islamic militant group which has a free hand in southern Lebanon and holds seats in parliament. The Lebanese government, caught in the middle, pleaded for a cease-fire.
But Israel said it was determined to beat Hezbollah back and deny the militant fighters positions they traditionally held along the northern border.
"If the government of Lebanon fails to deploy its forces, as is expected of a sovereign government, we shall not allow Hezbollah forces to remain any further on the borders of the state of Israel," Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said.
Israel's offensive was its heaviest in Lebanon in 24 years, launched after Hezbollah guerrillas snatched two Israeli soldiers in a brazen cross-border raid Wednesday. Two days of Israeli bombings killed 45 Lebanese and two Kuwaitis and wounded 103. Two Israeli civilians and eight Israeli soldiers have also been killed, the military's highest death toll in four years.
With the airport closed, many tourists were trapped while others drove over the mountains to Syria, though Israeli warplanes struck the highway linking Beirut to the Syrian capital of Damascus early Friday, closing the country's main artery and further isolating Lebanon from the outside world.
Beirut residents stayed indoors, leaving the streets of the capital largely empty. Others packed supermarkets to stock up on goods. Long lines formed on gas stations, with many quickly running out of gas.
Israel said its attacks were intended to prevent the movement of the captured soldiers and hamper Hezbollah's military capacity. It said it had information Hezbollah was trying to take the two soldiers to its ally, Iran.
Fears mounted among Arab and European governments that violence in Lebanon could spiral out of control in a volatile region already torn by conflicts in Iraq and in Gaza. Israel has launched an offensive in Gaza against Hamas, whose fighters are holding another Israeli soldier captured two weeks ago.
US President Bush backed Israel's right to defend itself and denounced Hezbollah as "a group of terrorists who want to stop the advance of peace."
But he also expressed worries the Israeli assault could cause the fall of Lebanon's anti-Syrian government. "We're concerned about the fragile democracy in Lebanon," Bush said in Germany.
The European Union took a harsher tone, criticizing Israel for using what it called "disproportionate" force. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was planning a peace mission.
The Arab League called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo on Saturday, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned that Israel's Lebanon offensive "is raising our fears of a new regional war."
Egypt launched a diplomatic bid to resolve the crisis, amid apparent frustration among moderate Arab nations that Hezbollah, and by implication its top ally Syria, had started the fight with Israel.
The shockwaves from the fighting began to be felt as tensions sharpened and crude oil prices rose to a new intraday record of US$76.30 a barrel.
Hezbollah's rocket attack on the port city of Haifa was its deepest such strike into northern Israel yet. No injuries were reported in Haifa, home to 270,000 residents and a major oil refinery 30 miles south of the border. Still, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, called the attack "a major, major escalation."
"Those who fire into such a densely populated area will pay a heavy price," said David Baker, an official in the Israeli prime minister's office.
Hezbollah's deputy leader denied its fighters fired on Haifa, but Israel blamed the group, which had warned earlier in the day it would strike the city if Beirut were targeted. Israeli officials at first did not confirm that the blast was a rocket, but after an investigation they confirmed it was a Katyusha launched from southern Lebanon. Witnesses also confirmed that a rocket hit the city.
The militants also fired rockets at four other northern Israeli towns, killing a 40-year-old woman on her balcony in Nahariya and a man in Safad.
Soon the Haifa attack, Israeli helicopter gunships raked fuel depots at Beirut's seaside airport with machine guns and missiles. The tanks exploded, sending gigantic flames into the night sky just outside Beirut. Earlier in the day, warplanes shut down the airport with strikes that pounded craters into all three of its runways, and Israeli warships sealed Lebanon's ports.
By evening, strikes in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern neighborhoods appeared imminent. After nightfall Israeli planes dropped leaflets in south Beirut warning residents to avoid areas where Hezbollah operates.
Army chief Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz warned that "nothing is safe" in Lebanon.
The Israeli warnings of more to come caused panic in Beirut, as people stuck to their homes and stayed away from their jobs.
Thousands, foreign tourists and Lebanese, took to the road from Beirut to Damascus, the only way out of the country after the airport was closed. Travelers to and from Beirut were stranded all over the region after Israel hit the Beirut airport after dawn Thursday. Among them was Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, who was returning from a visit to Armenia and, like many, was forced to make his way home through Syria.
Among the Lebanese dead were a family of 10 and another family of seven, killed when strikes hit their homes in the southern village of Dweir.
"It's a massacre," said Abu Talal, a 48-year-old resident who joined scores of Hezbollah supporters and townspeople at the funeral of Shiite cleric Sheik Adel Akkash, who was killed along with his wife and eight children, ages 3 months to 15 years.
"This is the (Israeli) arrogance. The raids aim to terrorize us, but morale is high."
The last time Israeli strikes targeted Beirut was in 2000, when warplanes hit a power station in the hills above the city after a Hezbollah attack killed Israeli soldiers. Israel has not hit Beirut's airport since its 1982 invasion of Lebanon and occupation of the capital.
Israel says it holds Lebanon responsible for Hezbollah's snatching of the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser, 31 and Eldad Regev, 26. The Lebanese government insisted it had no prior knowledge of the move and did not condone it, and even withdrew its ambassador to the US after he made comments seemingly in support of the guerrillas.
Hezbollah fighters operate with almost total autonomy in southern Lebanon, and the government has no control over their actions. But the government has long resisted international pressure to disarm the group. Any attempt to disarm Hezbollah by force could lead to sectarian conflict.

 

[A.Rahman]

I think they had it comming. What have they learnt from the past? What did they do to make sure no one says "we'll turn back clock 20 years on you"? How well prepared they were in the world where survival of the fittest is the order of the day, especially in the world's most tense region?

I just looked at the stats of Lebenon and Syria's air force and I cant believe my eyes that they still are where they were at the end of last war. THEY DID NOTHING.. Instead, built Hotels, Bars and Palaces for fun and frobbles... Who will listen to them if they cant defend themselves?

taken from: Pakdef.

 

[melb4aust]

What the hell on the earth did they attack lebanone. What did they do. Was'nt i saying it before, its hard to trust on Israel. And at one side they are claiming terrorism against them. Isnt this a terrorism killing young kids, and innocent people. Whats a point of striking civilians. Hell i hate this toooo

 

[Owais]

Gaza, Beirut under heavy Israeli attacks GAZA: At least one Palestinian was killed when a car blew up near Israeli tanks stationed in the area of Qarara in the southern Gaza Strip, while Israeli warplanes targetted a bridge and a power station in Labenon on Thursday night, sources said.

Israeli army confirmed that its tank fired a shell at a car in Qarara, turning the vehicle into flames and killing at least one person.

Meanwhile, Israeli planes for the first time bombarded Hezbollah targets overnight on the outskirts of the eastern Lebanese town of Hermel, on the border with Syria.

The fighter-bombers fired missiles in reply, police said without giving information on any casualties.

 

[Owais]

Israel attacks Lebanon’s army airbase BEIRUT: Israel intensified its attacks Thursday against Lebanon, blasting Beirut’s airport and a Lebanese army airbase near the Syrian border, and imposing a naval blockade.

More than 50 people have died in violence following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants.

Warplanes punched holes in the runways of Beirut’s international airport and Lebanon’s main military airbase 30 miles to the east, an attack that could draw the Lebanese army into the conflict.

Two days of Israeli bombings, the heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years, had killed 47 Lebanese and wounded 103, Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife said. Besides the Israeli civilian, eight Israeli soldiers had also been killed.

Both sides played a high-stakes game following the capture of the two soldiers by Hezbollah: Israel sought to end Hezbollah’s presence on the border, while the guerrillas insisted on trading the captured soldiers for Arab prisoners.

Trapped between the two sides was Lebanon, which Israel said it held responsible for Hezbollah’s actions. The Lebanese government insisted it had no prior knowledge of the Hezbollah raid and did not condone it.

The violence reverberated throughout the region and pushed crude oil prices to a new intraday record of $76.30 a barrel.

Israeli warships imposed a naval blockade of Lebanese ports, and the Israeli military said it could also target the Beirut-to-Damascus highway, the main land link between Lebanon and the outside world.

Jets dropped two bombs on the runway at the Rayak airbase in the eastern Bekaa Valley, damaging it, police said. No casualties were reported.

Rayak, four miles west of the Syrian border, is home to the country’s main military airbase and is military headquarters in eastern Lebanon. Lebanon’s army has no operational fixed-wing military aircraft and only operates helicopters equipped with machine guns.

The last major offensive against Lebanon was in 1996 when about 150 Lebanese civilians were killed.

Travelers to and from Beirut were stranded all over the region and beyond after the airport strike. Among them was Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, who was returning from a visit to Armenia and – like many – was forced to make his way home through Syria.

Israeli warplanes blasted craters into all three runways at the airport, located by the seaside in the Lebanese capital’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, forcing incoming flights to divert to Cyprus. The main terminal of the $500 million airport remained intact.

It was the first time since Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and occupation of Beirut that the airport was hit by Israel. The Israelis in 1968 sent commandos to Beirut airport, blowing up 13 passenger planes in retaliation for Arab militants firing on an Israeli airliner in Athens.

 

[Owais]

US vetoes UN resolution against Israel NEW YORK: The United States vetoed Friday a UN resolution before 15-member Security Council calling on Israel to end its attacks in Gaza.

"The US voted against the resolution before the Security Council because it is unbalanced and inflammatory," US Ambassador to UN John Bolton said.

"Further, we believed that the resolution will aggravate tensions in the region, especially following the major escalation of attacks by Hezbollah in the past 24 hours," he concluded.

Ten of the council members voted in favour of the draft, whereas the remaining four did not cast their vote.

 

[Samudra]

Bush Says Israel has Right to Defend Itself

That says it all!

 

[Owais]

Bloody centimonius son of Dajjal!!

Israel threatens to target Syria amid Lebanon strikes
BEIRUT: Israel has threatened to target Syria amid strikes against Lebanon, as three more Lebanese killed and 55 injured in Friday raids increasing civilian death toll in Lebanon to 88.

Israeli air raids on suburbs of the Lebanese capital where Hezbollah has its strongholds killed three people and wounded 55 overnight, police said Friday.

Israeli warplanes struck the base of a radical pro-Syrian Palestinian group in eastern Lebanon early Friday, police said.

The jets fired missiles on the radical Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in Qussaya, less than two kilometers (miles) from the border with Syria, they said.

An Israeli cabinet minister on Friday threatened to eliminate Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

"Nasrallah decided his own fate," Interior Minister Roni Bar-On announced on public radio. "We will settle our accounts with him when the time comes."

Meanwhile Israeli Foreign Minister has threatened to target Syria amid air strikes in Lebanon.

 

[A.Rahman]

That says it all!
[/size]

Bush again out of touch with reality...........:wall:

 

[Owais]

Bush again out of touch with reality...........:wall:

why he interfare. all things are going as planned.

 

[Neo]

Bush Says Israel has Right to Defend Itself

That says it all!

Neighboring countries have the same right to defend themselves.
But the problem is that if Lebanon or any other neighboring coutry attacks Israel the US will not veto the UNSC.
'All animals are equal...but some are more equal than others..'-Animal Farm.