Posted on 07/13/2006 4:43:44 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
ISRAELI Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered more intense strikes on Lebanon, ratcheting up retaliation against Hezbollah guerrillas following the capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.
The move came at a late-night meeting of security chiefs and followed Israel's blockading of Lebanese ports, the bombing of Beirut airport and strikes against two military airbases.
"The decision was made to intensify Israel's operations in Lebanon," Army Radio quoted political sources as saying after Mr Olmert met with Israeli security chiefs.
Israeli airstrikes and shelling have already killed at least 55 Lebanese civilians since the two soldiers were captured on Wednesday, while a steady barrage of Hizbollah rocket fire into northern Israel has killed two Israeli civilians and wounded 90.
Israeli aircraft struck the main highway linking Beirut with the Syrian capital, Damascus, early today, a Lebanese security source said. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.
Two Hezbollah missiles hit the Israeli port of Haifa, the country's third largest city, in a move Israel described as a "major escalation" since Haifa, home to around 250,000 people, lies more than 30km from the Lebanese border.
No one was injured in the Haifa attacks. Hezbollah denied firing on Haifa. In total, Israel said Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, fired more than 100 rockets at towns and villages in the north yesterday.
The military offensive coincided with an major Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip to retrieve a captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.
Israeli troops fired a tank shell at a vehicle in Gaza today, killing one Palestinian and wounding another, Palestinian medics said.
The threat of a larger-scale Israeli ground offensive into Lebanon to prevent the rocket fire gained currency after the Haifa strikes although the military remained tight-lipped.
"All options are available," army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal said when asked about the possibility of an offensive.
"Strategically speaking, if the third largest city in Israel is under attack, it's a big thing and a response can be expected."
In Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Israel not to attack Syria, saying such action would be considered an assault on the whole Islamic world that would bring a "fierce response", state television reported.
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, speaking in Germany, urged Israel to exercise restraint but also demanded that Syria put pressure on Hezbollah to stop attacks on Israel.
But Israel's ambassador to the United States Daniel Ayalon told CNN Israel believed its offensive was now the right way to deal with Hezbollah.
The violence was the fiercest since 1996, when Israeli troops still occupied part of south Lebanon.
US President George W. Bush voiced concern about the fate of Lebanon's anti-Syrian government, but offered no direct criticism of the punishment Israel meted out.
"Israel has the right to defend herself," he said while on a visit to Germany.
The European Union and Russia criticised Israel's strikes in Lebanon as a dangerous escalation of the Middle East conflict.
Saudi Arabia, though, blamed "elements" inside Lebanon for the violence with Israel, in unusually frank language directed at Hezbollah and its Iranian backers.
Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said that Lebanon wanted an end to "this open-ended aggression" by Israel.
In New York, the UN Security Council set an urgent meeting for tomorrow at Lebanon's request.
The United States today vetoed a council resolution put forward by Qatar on behalf of Arab states that called on Israel to immediately end its military incursion in Gaza.
The bombing of Beirut's international airport forced flights to divert to Cyprus. Later, Israeli aircraft targeted fuel tanks at the airport, setting at least one tank ablaze.
Planes dropped leaflets in a Beirut suburb, urging residents to stay away from Hizbollah offices, witnesses said, a move that raised the possibility that Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, could be targeted.
Israeli naval vessels enforcing the siege turned away three ships carrying fuel to Beirut, a shipping source said.
Israel has rejected Hezbollah demands that it release Arab prisoners in exchange for the captive soldiers, named by the Israeli army as Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26, but says it fears the soldiers could be spirited to Iran.
Iran said Israel was "talking absurdities".
Kick ass and take no prisoners! I'm far from expert on Israel's military options, but I sure hope that before this is over (1) Hezbollah and its 10K rockets will be history; (2) the terrorist infrastructure in the Bekka Valley will be history; (3) the Syrian Air Force and key governmental infrastructure will be history; (4) terrorist "offices" and HQs throughout Damascus, etc. will have been smashed. oh, and (5) of course, let's not forget wiping out as much of the Hamas infrastructure and forces in Gaza and the West Bank as Israel can possibly get at. Leave no terrorists alive should be the motto.
We would do well to emulate their policies.
Go Israel! Blow 'em up. Blow 'em WAY up.
Sounds like the Saudis may be worried about their neighbors to the East...
Nice that the Administration has decided to untangle our friends with that same ol.
I see in all of this, a serious warning to the Ayatollahs.
More than a warning.
They are about to get what they give!
Go for it sons of Zion! Make it so!
I am so tired of this crap!
God bless Israel! I hope Israel destroys Lebanon, Iran, and Syria.
Yes they are, but hitting Syria should be the goal.
I've been trying to get to the following through google news, but it's blocked from here (USA). ...couldn't even get it through a German proxy.
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