Posted on 07/14/2006 4:31:28 PM PDT by SJackson
ISRAELI fighter jets have destroyed the main road linking Lebanon to Syria and pounded the Hezbollah heartland in the south of Beirut in a bid to stop militants smuggling two captured soldiers to Iran. The Lebanese capital is now isolated, with Israeli planes and ships controlling the sky and waterways two days after the soldiers were seized by Hezbollah militants in a cross-border raid that has sparked the most serious violence in Lebanon since the height of its civil war.
Claiming he had "sealed his own fate", Israel yesterday threatened to assassinate Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who trumpeted the soldiers' kidnappings on Wednesday.
Israeli intelligence chiefs had earlier received information that Hezbollah may try to use the land border with Syria to smuggle their captives into the hands of arch-enemy Iran.
The Australian Government said last night there were 2800 Australian citizens registered in Beirut. The Australian-Lebanese community in the city is estimated at up to 25,000.
Australia has reopened its embassy in Beirut to provide passports and emergency assistance to its nationals, but could offer no guarantees land routes out of the country were safe.
"People are best served by staying indoors, and we're attempting to determine the extent to which land crossings from Lebanon into Syria are safe to use," a Foreign Affairs Department spokesman said.
Rockets continued to barrage Israel's northern towns and cities from Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, with two reaching the port city of Haifa, more than 30km from where they were launched.
Hezbollah, which launched 85 rockets on Thursday, claimed it had developed rockets that could reach all corners of Israel.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday warned Israel not to attack Syria in a bid to punish Hezbollah, claiming such a strike would lead to a "fierce response".
"If the Zionist regime commits another stupid move and attacks Syria, this will be considered likeattacking the whole Islamic world and this regime will receive a very fierce response," he said in a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that was later recounted by statemedia. World leaders have urged restraint, fearing the conflict could spark a regional war. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "profoundly worried" by developments and condemned attacks against civilians. As many as 61 Lebanese have been killed in three days of raids.
John Howard said he feared the siege of Beirut could topple the fragile Lebanese Government. "I don't think Lebanon is in a strong enough position," he said. "One of the worries in all of what is happening is that the present Lebanese Government, weak though it may be, could fall and be replaced by a government even more heavily under the influence of Syria."
A UN Security Council delegation is heading to the region in a bid to limit the crisis.
Israel last night bombed the main road to Beirut International Airport and, for the first time, a terminal. Israel dropped six bombs on the airport's three runways on Thursday. Bombs also fell on a power transformer in Beirut's south and bridges.
Jet fighters dropped leaflets over central Beirut warning Lebanese civilians that Hezbollah was leading them to ruin.
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Cutting the enemies supply lines, known in some quarters as criminal attacks on the civilian infrastructure.
Prayers up for the quick return of these soldiers and a defeat for the forces of the Moon God.
Yeah, the Democrat party quarter.
Ps 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
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High Volume During IDF offensive operations!
MikeFromFR ~
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)
Letter To The President In Support Of Israel ~
'Final Solution,' Phase 2 ~
Warnings ~
"The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets...."Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Holocaust Chronicle ~
"Palestine is the wrong name for their State. It should be called Anarchy."FReeper sgtbono2002
"Then let's wait and see what the Arabs do after they take Gaza. There's nothing like Arab reality to break up a Jewish fantasy."FReeper Noachian
A student told his professor he was going to "Palestine" to "fight for freedom, peace and justice,"Orwellian leftist code words that mean "murder Jews."
The Nature Of Bruce ~
Good. This is a total proxy war.
>.Ahmadenijad is setting the stage for the (inevitable)attack on Israel. He must have the bomb to be speaking so belligerently, which is the part that worries me the most.<,
Hmmm, as someone else said, maybe this really IS Ezekiel 38 coming about.
When is the world going to learn? Syria and Iran don't deserve to exist. (At least not their governments.) Certainly their leaders could meet with untimely ends.
I doubt it, he's just stirring the masses. He knows Israel isn't going to reach out to Iran. And probably won't deal with Syria unless Syria makes a mistake. The incitement is free.
Oh please! When these guys don't even have water pistols they say exactly the same stuff. "There will be volcanoes of rage erupting and eathquakes turning hell loose... blah, blah blah YAWN!"
Certainly their leaders could meet with untimely ends.
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Untimely? Actually it would be VERY timely!! :-)
Dead man hiding.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday warned Israel not to attack Syria in a bid to punish Hezbollah, claiming such a strike would lead to a "fierce response".
Crazy man inciting.
We've been listening to this maniac's threats against Israel for months on end.
I hope his mouth will prove to be his own snare and destruction... deservedly so. And the sooner the better.
And how is that? This isn't even close. Where Gog (Russia). They are not involved in this at all.
I don't comprehend the IDF not constantly hitting these launch sites. A missile large enough to deliver a warhead that far has a powerful rocket motor with a very significant launch signature, lots of fire and smoke and a smoke trail through the sky. A multi-tube launcher rippling off a barrage has an even larger signature, with the launch site in the center of a large cloud of smoke and dust. Why aren't the IDF planes overhead night and day scoping out these launches with gen4 sensors, laying a laser designator on them, and guiding in some heavy frags or cluster bombs? They also have AWACS planes capable of recording radar returns from ground traffic, playing the tapes in fast-mo and pinpointing the truck traffic from launch sites to ordnance depots and warehouses. What the hell are they waiting for??
Nah. The time to worry about Islamists is when they're quiet. Bluster usually goes hand in hand with impotence.
May the God of Abraham save and uphold the righteous.
I feel like it is just "talk". They always talk big, but don't back up their threats.
Because alot of these "launch sites" are in neighborhoods, and Israel has had it's hands tied by world opinion on their response.
I don't think he has the bomb yet. IMO most of the pipsqueaks rhetoric is for internal consumption.
Just like Chavez blathers about America attacking Venezuela and Kim Jong blathers the same in North Korean.
The pipsqueak talks about Islamic unity but it clear from the between the lines talk out of S.A. Jordan and Egypt that he has no friends in the greater mid east community but he has to fool his own people into believing that he does.
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