Two Israeli soldiers captured seven killed in Hezbollah attack

[Owais]

Asian powers to confront Rice over Israel
KUALA LUMPUR (updated on: July 27, 2006, 14:27 PST): Asian powers planned on Thursday to confront US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over Washington's stance on Israel and the Lebanon conflict at a regional security forum here.

After flying in from Rome, where she conducted a high-stakes Middle East crisis mission, Rice faced a difficult agenda including the North Korean missile crisis and the deteriorating situation in Israel and Lebanon.

Rice had been seeking to seize on the momentum of a UN Security Council resolution on North Korea's recent missile tests to pressure Pyongyang to return to nuclear talks which it has boycotted since November.

But instead she faces anger over the deadly Israeli airstrike on a United Nations post in Lebanon on Tuesday that killed four UN observers including one from China.

Foreign ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday expressed their deep concern over Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of the UN post.

The ministers have said they would raise the attack, and their calls for an immediate cease-fire, with Rice at Friday's ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

"The United States, which has the greatest influence on the Israelis, must encourage them to take a decision to stop all these bombings," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Wednesday.

"I think it is very easy to express deep regret after the event has happened, but I think the call by the majority of the international community is that they should stop and cease the bombing of Lebanon."

China, which reacted furiously to the bombing, is pushing for a UN Security Council statement condemning the deaths -- but the United States has rejected any criticism of the Israeli attack.

Beijing kept up the pressure here Thursday, saying that it hoped the United Nations would play a bigger role in the Middle East issue and that the conflict could be resolved through peaceful measures.

"We strongly condemn this, we hope the international community can urge Israel, the Middle East and the relevant parties to go back to the negotiation table as soon as possible," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

"We urge relevant parties, especially Israel, to immediately halt military action. I think others also have responsibility and should co-operate with international intervention efforts," she said.

Rice has denied that Washington had been isolated at the crisis talks in its rejection of an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

"Yes, there were a lot of countries calling for an immediate cease-fire. There were several that did not," she told journalists on board her plane to Malaysia.

"The fields of the Middle East are littered with broken cease-fires," she said. "Every time there is a broken cease-fire, people die and there is destruction and misery."

"Yes, we want to see a cease-fire urgently in this region. Let's create the conditions this time that will make this an end of violence."

Another element in the mix at the Kuala Lumpur talks is the surprise arrival later Thursday of Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

Iran is not officially a participant in Friday's meeting, and Iranian diplomats and Malaysian foreign ministry officials declined to say who he would be meeting with here.

"He's coming here to discuss the Middle East," a diplomatic source familiar with his visit told AFP.

In addition to ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the ARF groups Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, East Timor, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.

 

[Owais]

Israel pounds south Lebanon after heavy casualties
BEIRUT (updated on: July 27, 2006, 16:58 PST): Israel pummelled south Lebanon with bombs and shells on Thursday and Israeli media said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet favoured heavier air strikes against Hizbullah guerrillas rather than a big ground offensive.

Israeli forces have been trying to push Hizbullah back from the border and end rocket attacks since the group captured two soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, but the army is wary of getting bogged down in guerrilla battles in southern Lebanon.

Israel launched its latest bombardment of the south a day after nine soldiers were killed in the heaviest 24-hour toll it has suffered in its 16-day-old conflict against Hizbullah.

"Ministers want to step up air strikes and limit ground operations," Israeli media reported after Olmert's inner security cabinet met to consider a response to the losses.

The United States has given Israel a green light to pursue its assault on Lebanon by refusing to call for an immediate cease-fire or to let the UN Security Council do likewise.

Foreign ministers pledged in Rome on Wednesday to work urgently for a "lasting, permanent and sustainable" cease-fire, disappointing Lebanon and others who want the war to stop now.

Nevertheless, diplomats said groundwork was laid for a way forward. World concern has mounted over civilian casualties.

At least 433 people in Lebanon and 51 Israelis have already been killed in the conflict.

Israeli warplanes destroyed radio masts north of Beirut on Thursday and attacked three trucks carrying medical and food supplies to the east, security sources said. They said two truck drivers were killed. Israel accuses Lebanon's eastern neighbour Syria of supplying Hizbullah with arms. Syria denies the charge.

Other Israeli aircraft blasted targets in and around several villages and towns in the mainly Shia Muslim south, and artillery batteries opened up from Israel's side of the border.

Several Hizbullah rockets landed in northern Israel but caused no casualties, Israeli emergency services said.

Hizbullah guerrillas killed nine Israeli soldiers in pitched battles in a border town and a nearby village on Wednesday.

An opinion poll conducted before Wednesday's fighting showed 95 percent of Israelis still believed the offensive in Lebanon was justified, though the minority supporting a halt to the war for negotiations rose to 12 percent from 8 percent.

The Lebanon conflict has largely overshadowed separate fighting in the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli shell killed a 75-year-old woman at her Gaza home, a day after 24 Palestinians were killed in clashes, Palestinian medics said. Israel has killed 146 Palestinians in a month-long campaign to recover a soldier captured by militants.

Diplomats say the United States believes Israel's offensive needs more time to weaken Hizbullah, and Washington stuck to its stance that the root cause of the conflict -- Hizbollah's armed presence on Israel's border -- be tackled before a cease-fire.

POLITICAL SOLUTION

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Syria and Iran, Hizbollah's main allies, they faced further isolation if they failed to co-operate in halting the war in Lebanon.

"This needs to be between Lebanon and Israel," she told reporters en route from Rome to Malaysia to meet Asian ministers. The United States has backed Israeli demands for Hizbullah to pull back from the border and ultimately disarm.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was also due in Malaysia for talks with his Malaysian counterpart on the crisis.

Diplomats said key elements of a political solution were identified at a private meeting in Rome between Rice, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

These included a UN cease-fire resolution, a prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbullah, solving a territorial dispute over the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, moves to disarm Hizbullah and sending an EU-led international peace force to southern Lebanon.

Australia said it would support a multinational force in Lebanon, but Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that without a cease-fire it would be a "suicide mission".

The Syrian ambassador to Britain, Sami Khiyami, said Rice should visit Damascus for talks.

The UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement condemning an Israeli air strike in which four UN military observers were killed in southern Lebanon after the United States blocked language that appeared critical of Israel.

 

[Owais]

Israel calls in three divisions of reserve troops JERUSALEM: A day after Israel suffered its worst losses of the ongoing war with Hezbollah, Israel's security cabinet opted not to expand the military operation in south Lebanon, as some army generals had recommended.

But the cabinet did decide to call up three divisions of reserve troops for a "readiness exercise" rather than for deployment to the front.

The call-up, which could involve tens of thousands of reservists, underscored Israel's belief that Hezbollah's July 12 cross-border raid was designed to spark a wider war in the Middle East.

Violence escalated as Israel responds to militant attacks from Gaza, Lebanon.

Israel intensified air assault around Tyre, targeting convoys of vehicles, some of which carry civilians.

 

[Owais]

Extraordinary OIC summit on August 3 Islamabad: To discuss and evolve a common strategy to deal with the emerging Middle East situation and aggression against Lebanese and Palestinians by Israel an extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has been convened next Thursday (August 3) in Kuala Lumpur.

The current chairman of the OIC, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, has called the summit after hectic consultations with and among the leaders of the Muslim countries.

Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, too, had detailed discussions with Muslim leaders during the last week including Badawi and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.

Highly-placed sources disclosed that the Malaysian government has informed Islamabad about its decision of holding the summit. It is expected that Musharraf would lead Pakistan’s delegation in the summit and, in case of his non-availability, he can designate Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to represent the country in the summit, the sources added.

The decision regarding Pakistan’s representation would be made today in consultations between the president and prime minister. Aziz had telephonic conversation with his Lebanon’s counterpart twice since the current outbreak of violence in the Middle East.

The sources said the OIC summit could constitute a committee of the leaders of the Islamic world to deal with the Middle East situation. The summit will come out with a outright condemnation of Israel for its unjustified use of force.

The OIC will urge the member countries that have ties with Israel to suspend their relations with that country if they cannot afford to sever the same. The one point agenda summit could continue for informal consultations the next day but hopefully, all the decisions would be made on the first day, the sources hinted.

The summit will ask for immediate ceasefire and opt to use its clout to persuade the world powers that have an influence over Israel to halt the aggression, the sources said.

Public opinion in the Muslim countries has forced the OIC leadership to proceed ahead for getting the aggression stopped. The summit will be taking place on the day when the Israeli aggression would be completing its first month, the sources reminded. The OIC may seek intervention by the United Nations.

The OIC summit will also create special fund for the rebuilding of infrastructure and restoration of the victims of aggression in Lebanon and Palestine. It is unlikely that the OIC would play a role by dispatching its troops to resist the Israeli aggression, the sources hinted.

 

[A.Rahman]

All talk no action...... this is what OIC all about.

 

[Owais]

All talk no action...... this is what OIC all about.

OIC means "Oh, I see...."

 

[Owais]

40 killed in Israeli raids on Lebanon BEIRUT: Lebanese government has said that 40 civilians were killed by Israeli raids during last 24 hours whereas Israeli government has threatened to carry out massive raids in southern Lebanon in next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, there were reports that the Hezbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah was reached Syria. Hezbullah, however, didn’t confirmed the reports.

Israeli warplanes have renewed their attacks on targets in southern Lebanon, killing at least five people and wounding others.

Two people died when an Israeli bomb hit their home in the village of Deir Aamiss south of the city of Tyre.

Israeli jets also killed one man when they fired missiles at a building near the southern market town of Nabatiyeh on Friday morning, Lebanese officials said.

A separate Israeli air strike had destroyed a deserted four-story building near the town earlier on Friday, local officials said.

The building housed a construction company owned by a Hezbollah activist, the officials said.

Hussam Abu Shamet, a Jordanian man in a nearby house, was killed by missile shrapnel in that attack.

The Israeli air force carried out 27 bombing attacks east of Tyre on Friday morning and fired more than 300 artillery shells at the area, Lebanese police said.

Israel's army believes that at least 200 Hizbollah fighters have been killed during 17 days of fighting in Lebanon, a military source said on Friday.

Hezbollah has announced the death of 32 of its fighters, including two rescue workers since the fighting broke out.

The Israeli military offensive began after Hezbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid in early July.

Meanwhile, Israeli Cabinet authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensified.

 

[ali ahmad]

At least five people were shot, one of them fatally, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and one person was arrested, authorities said. A witness told a local newspaper that the man said he was a Muslim who was angry at Israel.

 

[ali ahmad]

lebonos war spreading into american homeland.>>>>>>

 

[Owais]

26 Hezbollah men killed by Israeli forces BEIRUT: Israel Defense Forces troops killed 26 Hezbollah gunmen in clashes in the southern Lebanon town of Bint Jbail. No IDF troops were hurt in the operation, an Israeli army spokesperson said.

During the day's fighting, a joint force of Paratroopers and soldiers from the Golani Brigade seized Hezbollah equipment including five anti-tank missiles, 30 hand grenades, 41 clips and 10 bullet proof vests, spokesperson added.

Two Israel Air Force raids destroyed a bridge on the Orontes river in the Bekaa Valley early on Saturday, largely cutting off the town of Hermel from the rest of the country. There were no casualties, residents said.

On Thursday night, Israeli planes fired more than 30 missiles at suspected Hezbollah hideouts in hills and mountainous areas in southeastern Lebanon.

The warplanes also struck three buildings in a village near the market town of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon.

 

[Owais]

Hezbollah agrees conditional release of Israeli captives BEIRUT: Hezbollah has been agreed to release Israeli captive soldiers on conditions, Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told an Arabic TV.

Berri, who acts as an intermediary between Hezbollah and the international community, reiterated a previous offer to free the two Israeli soldiers in exchange for freeing Lebanese detainees held by Israel, following a complete ceasefire and allowing return of migrants that had left south Lebanon.

Earlier, Hezbollah had demanded release of all Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail.

 

[Owais]

Nasrallah accuses Rice of guarding Israeli interests

BEIRUT: Shortly after Rice's landing on Israeli soil, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to strike cities "in the centre" of Israel if the Jewish state continues to attack civilians in Lebanon.

In a televised speech apparently timed to coincide with Rice's arrival, Nasrallah accused the top US diplomat of returning to the region just to impose "conditions" on Lebanon as part of plans to create a new Middle East order.

The Hezbollah leader also hailed his guerrillas' "legendary resistance" in the deadly clashes on the ground as sparking increasing calls worldwide for a political settlement to the conflict.

"Afula is only the beginning," he said, referring to Friday's attacks on the northern Israeli city, the deepest city yet hit by Hezbollah inside Israeli territory.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel Sunday in a new bid to end the 18-day-old Lebanon conflict, as Israel launched a deadly new wave of strikes after flatly rejecting a UN plea for a truce to allow in humanitarian aid.

Israel, backed by the United States, has refused to set a date for ending its war on the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah that has killed more than 450 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and made hundreds of thousands homeless.

The latest victims of Israel's onslaught were 14 civilians, including children, killed in separate air raids on the south of the country, taking the toll of the dead to 453 -- 382 them civilians.

 

[Owais]

Rice arrives in Israel shortly after Nasrallah's televised speech

OCCUPED AL-QUDS: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel Sunday in a new bid to end the 18-day-old Lebanon conflict, as Israel launched a deadly new wave of strikes after flatly rejecting a UN plea for a truce to allow in humanitarian aid.

Shortly after Rice touched down, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to strike cities "in the centre" of Israel if the Jewish state continues to attack civilians in Lebanon.

Israel, backed by the United States, has refused to set a date for ending its war on the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah that has killed more than 450 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and made hundreds of thousands homeless.

In a televised speech apparently timed to coincide with Rice's arrival, Nasrallah accused the top US diplomat of returning to the region just to impose "conditions" on Lebanon as part of plans to
create a new Middle East order.

The latest victims of Israel's onslaught were 14 civilians, including children, killed in separate air raids on the south of the country, taking the toll of the dead to 453 -- 382 them civilians, according to the agency count.

UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland had appealed for a truce to allow casualties to be removed and food and medicine to be sent into the war zone, saying one third of the casualties were children.

But an Israeli foreign ministry official said a ceasefire was unacceptable "because this terrorist organisation would exploit it to gather civilians to use them as a human shield in the combat zone".

En route to Occupied Al-Quds for the second time in less than a week, Rice said she was expecting a "fairly intense" round of talks with "give and take" on both sides, but that she was encouraged by some progress.

"We are not setting a deadline, but obviously as we want an early end to the violence it is important that we get agreement on the elements," said Rice. "I think there are a lot of elements that are coming together."

She hailed as "positive" a Lebanese cabinet agreement on a ceasefire plan which calls for a prisoner exchange and for the government to assert its sovereignty over the Hezbollah-controlled
south.

Rice had dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and was expected to meet other top officials on Sunday.

Facing tougher than expected resistance from Hezbollah fighters despite its military superiority, Israel said it had pulled its forces back from the key border town of Bint Jbeil, the scene of the deadliest ground combat.

Israel, which last week lost nine soldiers in fighting around Bint Jbeil in its biggest single-day death toll of the conflict, said Saturday it had killed between 70 and 80 Hezbollah guerrillas over the past three days.

 

[Owais]

Pakistan slams Israeli aggression on Lebanon
ISLAMABAD (updated on: July 30, 2006, 19:20 PST): Pakistan strongly denounced the Israeli attack on Sunday on the southern Lebanese town of Qana, as thousands of people protesting the killing of more than 54 civilians torched Israeli and US flags.

"Pakistani government and people strongly condemn this sad incident, which is clearly unwarranted aggression," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters after a telephone call to his Lebanese counterpart, Fuad Siniora.

He also appealed to the world community to come forward and help find "an immediate and peaceful settlement" of the conflict.

Aziz said he assured Siniora of "Pakistan's full support to the people of Lebanon in this critical hour."

The Israeli air strike on Qana Sunday killed 54 people, including 37 children, the deadliest strike since Israel launched its offensive against Lebanon on July 12.

The raid triggered protest rallies in Pakistan. Despite heavy rain, around 3,000 people at a rally in the port city of Karachi condemned the attack and vowed to support the Lebanese people.

Protesters carrying banners against the Israeli attack called for an immediate end to "Israeli aggression" in Lebanon.

The rally was convened by Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of six parties, whose leaders called on the Muslim world to extend military help to Lebanon, witnesses said.

The Shia community also held a separate rally in Karachi attended by more than 1,000 people, including women and children.

"We are ready to offer every sacrifice for our Lebanese brothers," a leader Haider Abbas told the gathering as slogan-chanting protesters burnt US and Israeli flags.

"We will continue to support the Palestinian people until they get their rights," he added.

 

[Owais]

Israel fights in south Lebanon, to widen offensive


BEIRUT (updated on: August 01, 2006, 12:11 PST): Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hizbullah guerrillas in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, as the Jewish state gave its army the green light to widen a ground offensive and push deep into Lebanese territory.

Hizbullah said it was battling incursions near the border areas of Aita al-Shaab and the village of Kfar Kila. An Israeli military source only reported 'on and off' clashes.

Israeli aircraft launched strikes against south Lebanese border villages and areas in eastern Lebanon on the second day of what it had said would be a 48-hour partial halt to aerial bombardment, Lebanese security sources and witnesses said.

Three Hizbullah rockets hit an Israeli border village overnight, the Israeli army said. There were no rocket attacks on northern Israel on Monday.

Instead of a cease-fire demanded by some of the international community, Israel pledged to broaden its offensive.

"The security cabinet approved a widening of ground operations without any objections," a government official said.

The aim was to push Hizbullah back to the Litani River, some 20 km (13 miles) north of the border, a political source said. A senior cabinet minister said the army needed up to two weeks to complete its objectives.

"I reckon the time required for the (army) to complete the job, and by that I mean that the area in which we want the international force to deploy is cleansed of Hizbullah, will take around 10 days to two weeks," Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former defence minister, told Army Radio.

Some 300,000 mainly Shia Lebanese lived in towns and villages south of Litani before the war began.

The Israeli army was calling up at least 15,000 more reservists to support the ground operations, Israel Radio said.

At least 598 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister puts the toll at 750 including bodies still buried under rubble. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed in the violence ignited by Hizbollah's July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border operation.

The southern village of Qana was set to bury bodies of at least 54 civilians, including 37 children on Tuesday, two days after they were killed in an Israeli air strike that sparked international outrage and calls for a swift end to the fighting.

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

Despite international condemnation of the Qana attack and the US Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice's view that a cease-fire could be reached this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there was no sign fighting would end soon.

"The fighting continues. There is no cease-fire and there will not be any cease-fire in the coming days," Olmert told a gathering of northern Israeli mayors on Monday.

Civilians fled villages in south Lebanon after the halt of air strikes was announced and aid convoys headed into the area.

Israeli forces have faced tough resistance from Hizbullah in a week of clashes near the border, with Hizbullah killing 16 Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army said it had killed scores of guerrillas there but Hizbullah did not confirm the casualties.

Israeli jets bombed roads near the north-eastern Lebanese town of al-Hermil and eastern areas near the Syrian border, security sources said. Aircraft also bombarded two villages in south Lebanon.

The raids on Hermil were aimed at "preventing the transferring of weaponry" to Hizbullah, said an Israeli army spokesman. Israel had said it would still use air strikes against Hizbullah forces and to back its ground forces.

Syria, which backs Hizbullah, ordered its military to raise readiness, pledging not to end support for resistance to Israel.

The United Nations postponed discussion on mobilising an international force for Lebanon until at least Thursday, until there was more progress toward a political solution.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said an international force could be deployed only once a cease-fire had been agreed. Russia also demanded an immediate cease-fire.

But the United States, which blames Hizbullah for the war, is refusing to back calls for an immediate halt to the fighting.

Haaretz newspaper said Israel was ready to swap two Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the two captured soldiers as part of a cease-fire agreement. Israel had said it would not negotiate a prisoner exchange and demanded the release of the two.