Israel Intensifies Attacks Against Lebanon --Thursday evening summary thread....

Las Vegas Sun ^ | July 13, 2006 at 19:0:52 PDT | SAM F. GHATTAS ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -

AP Video 0713dv-haifa-attack Israel unleashed a furious military campaign on Lebanon's main airport, highways, military bases and other targets Thursday, retaliating for scores of Hezbollah guerrilla rockets that rained down on Israel and reached as far as Haifa, its third-largest city, for the first time.

The death toll in two days of fighting rose to 57 people with the sudden burst of violence sending shock waves through a region already traumatized by Iraq and the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. It shattered the relative calm in Lebanon that followed Israel's pullout from its occupied zone in south Lebanon in 2000 and the withdrawal of Syrian forces last year.

Israel's target was Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant Shiite faction which has a free hand in southern Lebanon and also holds seats in parliament. Hezbollah sparked the current conflict Wednesday with a cross-border raid that captured two of Israel's soldiers.

Israel said it was determined to beat Hezbollah back and deny the militant fighters positions they have held along the border since 2000.

The Lebanese government, caught in the middle, pleaded for a cease-fire.

"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.

Israeli warplanes stepped up the pressure early Friday, striking targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah has its political headquarters, security officials said. The impact of at least four missiles were heard, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

The raid came just a few hours after Israeli planes dropped leaflets in south Beirut warning residents to avoid areas where Hezbollah operates.

Fears mounted among Arab and European governments that violence in Lebanon could spiral out of control.

Israeli analysts warned that Syria, which supports Hezbollah and plays host to Hamas' political leader Khaled Mashaal, could be Israel's next target.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said any Israeli attack against Syria would be an aggression on the whole Islamic world and warned of a harsh reaction, the official Iranian news agency reported Friday.

The agency said Ahmadinejad made the comments in a telephone call to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

At the United Nations, the United States blocked an Arab-backed resolution that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the first U.N. Security Council veto in nearly two years.

Israel's offensive was among its heaviest in Lebanon since it invaded the neighboring country and occupied its capital 24 years ago. 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 Beirut's international airport closed after Israeli bombs ripped apart its runway, 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 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 - an allegation denied by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Israel launched an offensive in Gaza against Hamas, whose fighters are holding another Israeli soldier captured two weeks ago.

Early Friday, Israeli aircraft struck targets in several parts of Gaza and a Palestinian was killed when an Israeli tank shell struck his truck, officials said. There were no reports of injury in the air raids, which damaged a main road and offices and training camps of militants.

The shockwaves from the fighting on two fronts began to be felt as oil prices surged Thursday to a record above $78 a barrel in world markets, also agitated by the threat of supply disruptions in the Middle East and beyond.

President Bush, speaking of the Lebanon offensive, 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.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's political heavyweight and economic powerhouse, accused Hezbollah guerrillas - without naming them - of "uncalculated adventures" that precipitated the latest Middle East crisis.

"The kingdom sees that it is time for those elements to alone shoulder the full responsibility for this irresponsible behavior and that the burden of ending the crisis falls on them alone," according to a Saudi official quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.

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 said it was a Katyusha rocket 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.

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 U.S. 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.

---

Associated Press reporter Karin Laub in Jerusalem contributed to this report

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[the invisib1e hand]

ya gotta see this.

[rumrunner]

I just remember during the Iraqi war we had one monster thread per day, and it helped a lot.

Thanks Ernest.

[Peach]

Bump for later read.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Special note to Lurkers.....click on the keyword....

2006israelwar

to see many of the other threads posted during the last week.... You will see that at the bottom of the article and just above the current Freepathon banner.....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Did you see John Zogby on CNN talking about how the Palestians and Arab Muslin Lebanonese feel so violated because of Israel's actions....?

A real barfer....thought he was gonna cry!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Takes a long time to read monster threads....many won't.

[Krodg]

If you have a ping list for this, please add me. Thanks

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

No ping list,,....just check the keyword....lots of people posting .....it's a real blizzard..

[Dr Stormfist]

Something I've been thinking of for days now...

We all know North Korea claims they can reach the United States west coast with a missile...The distance between Pyongyang, North Korea and Sacramento, CA is 5592.0 miles

However, think on this...The distance between Pyongyang, North Korea and Jerusalem, Israel is 4910.0 miles

What if...North Korea's true target was Israel, they do have Iranian scientists helping them with the rockets...but what kind of help?

If North Korea strikes against Israel...the Iranian's can claim they had no knowledge of it...and at the same time, it'd be hard for Israel to get back at North Korea.

Just a scary scenario...maybe I think too much.

/shrugs

[mcashman]

"'The kingdom sees that it is time for those elements to alone shoulder the full responsibility for this irresponsible behavior and that the burden of ending the crisis falls on them alone,' according to a Saudi official quoted by the Saudi Press Agency. "

This is terrific news. Even the Saudis have had enough.

[ccmay]

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was planning a peace mission.

F**k off, Javy. Israel is already on a peace mission.

-ccm

[gotribe]

ya gotta see this.

They're not ready to surrender, are they?

[the invisib1e hand]

probably some burned out lesbians in the Village.

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks for the keyword..

Lots of threads these days.. hard to keep up with all of them

[dhorowitz3]

Great rounduphere

[JDoutrider]

Grabbing Popcorn Bump...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I actually told you something you were already clued in on.....you've made my DAy!

[Salem]

The IDF is really rolling!

---

Ps 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.





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[MHGinTN]

Sadly, the Saudis are doing what they always do, mouth off about how the actions of their puppets create instability, while they raise the amount of funds they send to finance the evil. The Saudis are no longer believable since they will not stop funding terrorism and hate education. The U.S. must awaken to the fact that our oil dependence upon the M.E. is what allows these demon servants to continue this insane building up of hate and murderous blood lust in Islam. This is yet another reason the democraps cannot be allowed back in control because they will immediately begin kissing the terrorists' butts to achieve short-term peace while abetting long term global war with Islam.