Two Israeli soldiers captured seven killed in Hezbollah attack

[melb4aust]

14 Israeli troops killed in clashes with Hezbollah http://www.geo.tv/news_images/world...4cc1-ba37-a7961748a0f714-isrli-kill._lpic.jpg BEIRUT: Hezbollah guerrillas put up fierce resistance against Israeli troops trying to take over a key southern Lebanese stronghold on Wednesday, killing as many as 14 Israeli soldiers, Arab media reported.

A Dubai-based satellite TV channel said at least 14 Israeli soldiers had been killed in the fighting for control of Bint Jbail, a town that has symbolic importance to the militant group as one of the centers of resistance to the 1982-2000 Israeli occupation.

Thats what the Hezbollah wants and have been waiting for, to have israeli ground soldiers to enter labenone. This is where they can be very lethal to Israeli forces, Its like a "hide and seek" kind of mission. The only worries they have is killing of innocent people during air raids by Israeli jets. They may get away from those raids, but for normal citizens its difficult to survive.

 

[A.Rahman]

DAmn!

what kind of weapon does hezbollah has?!

 

[Owais]

Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli Gaza air raid GAZA: Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including a three-year-old child, and wounded 30 others in attacks across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medics and witnesses said. Nine were killed in the northern Gaza town of Jabalya when a missile or tank shell crashed into a crowd of people. The child and three members of a force led by the governing Hamas movement were among those killed. The Israeli army said it carried out an air strike in the area after militants fired an anti-tank missile at Israeli forces. Witnesses said an Israeli tank had fired on the crowd.

 

[Owais]

Hezbollah vows to continue attacks on Israel BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Wednesday that his guerrillas will fire rockets on Israel beyond the northern city of Haifa and counter Israeli military advances inside southern Lebanon.

"We are entering a new phase in the confrontation, the phase of (striking) beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

Israel has repeatedly said it believes Hezbollah has longer-range rockets capable of reaching beyond Israel's third city, as far as the commercial capital Tel Aviv, or even the southern city
of Beersheva.

Nasrallah denied that the southern border town of Bint Jbeil had fallen.

A UN spokesman earlier said Israeli troops entered the town where they were "engaged in clashes with Hezbollah"

"They do not control Bint Jbeil. All the city of Bint Jbeil is still in the hands of the resistance," Nasrallah said.

He added Hezbollah was "not a classical army and will wage guerrilla wars" against Israeli advances inside southern Lebanon "which will not halt bombardments on the settlements," or northern Israeli towns. "There will be no limits to our bombardments."

He called for "further steadfastness and unity on these decisive days."

Nasrallah said all delegations which flocked to Lebanon in the last week "only brought American-Zionist diktats ... they did not bring solutions or settlements."

"We do not accept humiliating conditions but we are open to political discussions," he said.
After UN and European Union delegations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit in Beirut on Monday where she reportedly presented a ceasefire plan stipulating the deployment of an international force, possibly led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, in a buffer zone inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days.

But Rice's ceasefire plan was rejected by Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who is acting as an intermediary for Hezbollah, because it did not include a prisoner swap with Israel.

Nasrallah said the Israeli offensive was not triggered by the capture of the soldiers, but had been planned to take place in September or October.

 

[Owais]

No agreement on Mideast cease-fire plan ROME: U.S., European and Arab officials holding crisis talks on Lebanon failed to agree Wednesday on an immediate plan to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Although officials called for an end to the violence, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said there cannot be a return to a "status quo" of political uncertainty and instability in Lebanon. She said any cease-fire must be "sustainable."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the solution to the Mideast crisis should involve Iran and Syria. He also called for the formation of a multinational force to help Lebanon assert its authority and implement U.N. resolutions that would disarm Hezbollah.

After listening to a dramatic appeal from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora for them to stop the killing, the officials said they had agreed on the need to deploy an international force under the aegis of the United Nations in southern Lebanon.

"An international force in Lebanon should urgently be authorized under a U.N. mandate to support the Lebanese armed forces in providing a secure environment," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said - but there was no mention of who would take part or any other details.

"Participants expressed their determination to work immediately to reach, with utmost urgency, a cease-fire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities. The cease-fire must be lasting, permanent and sustainable," D'Alema said.

He said many of the participants in the meeting appealed for an immediate and unconditional truce.

The United States and Britain opposed the push for a quick cease-fire, saying any truce should ensure that Hezbollah no longer is a threat to Israel and should ensure a durable peace.

Referring to the cease-fire, D'Alema said, "To obtain this objective, you must exercise pressure on all parties involved, directly and indirectly, on who can exercise influence on Hezbollah and on Israel."

"We asked Israel for maximum restraint" to respect civilians and infrastructure, he said.

Despite the failure to reach a common position on the details of how to pursue a cease-fire, the conference participants agreed to humanitarian aid for the country and to hold a donors' conference.

The foreign ministers and other senior officials from 15 nations, as well as Annan and representatives from the European Union and the World Bank, agreed on a declaration expressing "deep concern" for the high number of civilian casualties in Lebanon, where government officials say hundreds of people have been killed.

The officials called on Israel to exercise "utmost restraint" and deplored the destruction of infrastructure in the country.

 

[Owais]

Israel taken US ME policies hostage: Syrian envoy WASHINGTON: Israel has taken the United States Middle East policies hostage, Syrian ambassador in Washington said in an interview.

In an interview to US news agency, the Syrian envoy, Imad Moustapha said that the United States driven by ideologues and lobbyists, is in lockstep behind Israel in its 2-week-old battle with Hezbollah while promoting diplomacy unlikely to succeed.

He said that Syria was not providing Hezbollah militia with missiles. Hezbollah has its own sources of arms, Moustapha said, while saying that ideologues in the Bush administration and pro-Israeli lobbyists are driving U.S. policy support for Israel to
unprecedented levels. ``What Israel says is immediately adopted'' by the administration, he said. ``Whatever Israel wants becomes immediate U.S. policy in the Middle East.''

Israel holds 9,000 prisoners in its jails and yet is projected as ``an angel of peace.’’, Moustapha said.

While Syria supports Hezbollah and also the Palestinian group Hamas, Hezbollah is ``an autonomous movement'' and ``we are not engaged; we are not involved in logisitics,'' he said. ``We do not believe in Syria that Hezbollah needs any military support from Syria,'' Moustapha added.

And, he said, ``Hezbollah has not asked us for any military help,'' while in the meantime the United States supplies Israel with weapons that are destroying Lebanon and killing women and children.

Deriding U.S. efforts on several fronts, including humanitarian aid, he said, ``I don't know which cargo will reach the Middle East first, the blankets or the laser bombs (for Israel).''

 

[Owais]

China, Pakistan condemn killing of UN observers in Israeli raid BEIJING: Pakistan, China and Thailand have strongly condemned Wednesday an Israeli air strike in Lebanon that killed four United Nations observers.

Four UN observers including a Chinese national were killed in Tuesday's strike on the hilltop town of Khiam.

Foreign Office spokesperson in Islamabad Tasnim Aslam in a statement condemned the incident in Lebanon.

China has called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict by all sides.

"The Chinese side is deeply shocked and strongly condemns this," foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement, adding the strike had killed "many innocent victims".

"The China demands that all sides in the confrontation, especially Israel, take all measures to ensure the safety of UN peacekeepers."

Thailand have also condemned the incident and expressed concern over escalation in Middle East region.

 

[Owais]

Hassan Nasrallah vows to fire beyond Haifa BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Wednesday that his guerrillas will fire rockets on Israel beyond the northern city of Haifa and counter Israeli military advances inside southern Lebanon.

"We are entering a new phase in the confrontation, the phase of (striking) beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

Israel has repeatedly said it believes Hezbollah has longer-range rockets capable of reaching beyond Israel's third city, as far as the commercial capital Tel Aviv, or even the southern city
of Beersheva.

Nasrallah denied that the southern border town of Bint Jbeil had fallen.

A UN spokesman earlier said Israeli troops entered the town where they were "engaged in clashes with Hezbollah"

"They do not control Bint Jbeil. All the city of Bint Jbeil is still in the hands of the resistance," Nasrallah said.

He added Hezbollah was "not a classical army and will wage guerrilla wars" against Israeli advances inside southern Lebanon "which will not halt bombardments on the settlements," or northern Israeli towns. "There will be no limits to our bombardments."

He called for "further steadfastness and unity on these decisive days."

Nasrallah said all delegations which flocked to Lebanon in the last week "only brought American-Zionist diktats ... they did not bring solutions or settlements."

"We do not accept humiliating conditions but we are open to political discussions," he said.
After UN and European Union delegations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit in Beirut on Monday where she reportedly presented a ceasefire plan stipulating the deployment of an international force, possibly led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, in a buffer zone inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days.

But Rice's ceasefire plan was rejected by Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who is acting as an intermediary for Hezbollah, because it did not include a prisoner swap with Israel.

Nasrallah said the Israeli offensive was not triggered by the capture of the soldiers, but had been planned to take place in September or October.

He said the offensive was meant to crush Hezbollah's military campaign, and put Lebanon under the control of the United States and Israel who want to "impose a new Middle East" in which they would control the region and its resources.

During a visit in Israel on Tuesday, Rice said it was "time for a new Middle East. A durable solution will be one that strengthens the forces of peace and democracy in the region."

"Our fate is to confront this plan ... we are waging a war for the liberation of the remaining occupied lands (the disputed Shebaa Farms border territory) and the liberation of our detainees" in Israeli jails, Nasrallah said.

"This is a battle for sovereignty and independence," he concluded

 

[Owais]

35 Israeli troops killed: Hezbollah BEIRUT: Hezbollah claimed of killing 35 Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

According to Al-Arabia television, Hezbollah has claimed of killing at least 35 troops the other day in clashes with Israeli forces, while Israel confirmed nine casualties among its army ranks in Bint Jebil.

 

[Owais]

Al-Qaida won't stand idle over killing in Lebanon, Palestine: Al-Zawahri CAIRO: Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader warned in a new videotape released Thursday that the terrorist group will not stand idly by while Israeli bombardments "burn our brothers" in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

In the message broadcast by an Arab television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said that al-Qaida now saw "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us."

The Egyptian-born physician said the Hezbollah and Palestinian battles against Israel would not be ended with "cease-fires or agreements."

The fighting began last month following a Palestinian cross-border raid in which an Israeli soldier was captured, then expanded to Lebanon after Hezbollah militants captured two other soldiers in a raid earlier this month.

"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a Jihad for God's sake and will last until (our) religion prevails," al-Zawahri said. "We will attack everywhere."

Al-Zawahri wore a gray robe and white turban. A picture of the burning World Trade Center was on the wall behind him along with pictures of two other militants.

The Arab satellite station appeared not to have transmitted the entire tape, using instead selected quotes interspersed with commentary from an anchor.

"The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli (weapons), but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition.

Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price," al-Zawahri said.

 

[Owais]

Ahmadinejad urges Israel to compensate Lebanon DUSHANBE: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for a cease-fire in Lebanon and lambasted U.S. policy in the Middle East, saying the United States wanted to ``recarve the map'' of the region with Israel's help.

In addition to a cease-fire, Ahmadinejad called for talks on the Lebanon crisis without conditions, and demanded Israel compensate the country and apologize for its actions. He also denied U.S.claims that Iran provides military support for Hezbollah, saying it only supports the movement politically and morally.

 

[sigatoka]

How much is this costing the Israeli economy? Id be suprised if the cost was less than $4 million a day.

 

[Owais]

US denies Lebanon talks failed WASHINGTON: The White House flatly denied that a world power summit in Rome on ending the Middle
East crisis had broken down after the talks failed to yield a demand for an immediate ceasefire.

"What do you mean, they broke down?" said spokesman Tony Snow. "I think it's important to recognize that if you don't have a specified clock date for a ceasefire, that's not a failure, that's a recognition of reality.

"And the reality is that you have to have conditions for a sustainable and credible peace. And that is the one thing that everybody there was talking about," the spokesman told reporters.

The five-hour conference in Rome ended with a declaration vowing to work with "utmost urgency" for a truce and calling for an international force to be deployed in Lebanon, but insisting that
any ceasefire "must be lasting, permanent and sustainable."

That reflected Washington's perspective that an immediate truce is pointless unless it gets at the "root cause" of the violence -- Hezbollah attacks on Israel, in the US view.

"The violence starts with Hezbollah. And we don't stop the violence, they do," said Snow, who renewed US charges that Hezbollah sparked the conflict with rocket attacks on Israel
and the capture of two Israeli soldiers.

"The conditions for peace begin with Hezbollah's stopping the terror, returning the soldiers, stopping firing rockets. You've heard the formulation many times. That doesn't change," said the
spokesman.

"Meanwhile, we've said to Israel, 'You need to practice restraint.' We've been very clear about that as well," said Snow.

Snow said there was growing consensus on the need to pressure Hezbollah, as well as Iran and Syria, to end its attacks and to disarm.

"The international community now is speaking with a pretty united voice on this, and that's the important thing," he said. "And also, everybody now realizes, 'OK, we've got to start working on
certain things together.'"

"You've got to get the people who are doing the fighting to stop. And that begins with Hezbollah -- Hezbollah being the instigator. That is the key element here," he said.

 

[Neo]

How much is this costing the Israeli economy? Id be suprised if the cost was less than $4 million a day.

Even if its $10 million a day its american taxpayes burden, not Israei's.

 

[Owais]

India condemns Israeli Lebanon assault
NEW DELHI (updated on: July 27, 2006, 14:38 PST): India's prime minister condemned on Thursday in the 'strongest possible terms' Israel's offensive against Lebanon and called for an immediate cease-fire in the region.

"We are condemning in the strongest possible terms the disproportionate reaction by Israel," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament.

Singh was referring to Israel's deadliest offensive in Lebanon in a decade.

The Indian prime minister also condemned the abduction of the two soldiers by Hezbollah.

But "the virtual destruction of a country that has been painfully rebuilt after two decades of civil war can hardly be countenanced by any civilized state," he said.

"We have particularly expressed concern that the actions of the Israeli defence forces have resulted in the killing and suffering of innocent civilians including women and children," he said.

Singh called for an "immediate cease-fire so that the destruction of Lebanon is ended and humanitarian assistance can be provided" and condemned Tuesday's killing of four UN observers in an Israeli attack on a UN post in Lebanon.

India was "seriously concerned about the escalation of the conflict" affecting West Asia and wanted a "long-term solution that will address the legitimate concerns of all parties in the region", Singh said.

In response to the Israeli bombardment, Hezbollah has been firing rockets on Israeli cities.

After decades of cold relations as well as Indian support for the Palestinian movement, India and Israel established diplomatic ties in 1992.

Singh's statements came after the communist allies of the ruling Congress-led coalition criticised the government for its lack of response to Israel's bombardment and raids on Lebanon.

The Communist Party of India leader described the Israeli bombardment as "a full-scale assault" in "brazen violation of international law".