Posted on 07/15/2006 2:22:32 PM PDT by yankeedame
ELEVEN children and seven adults were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, their bodies consumed by flames when an Israeli warplane opened fire on the convoy they were in, UN peacekeepers and hospital sources said. Their charred remains were extracted from the wreckage of the minibus and car they were travelling in and taken to hospital.
A doctor, Ali Zeineddine, said they were burned alive.
"It is very difficult to identify the bodies or to distinguish between girls or boys, as the 18 victims perished from the fire triggered by incendiary shells. They grilled," he said.
They had been among residents fleeing villages close to the Israeli border and were killed when missiles struck a car and a minibus near Shamaa, hospital sources said. The children were aged between 7 and 12.
An officer with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), who was involved in the evacuation operation, told AFP that his team removed most of the burnt bodies.
"Some of them were thrown on olive trees and even on haystacks," said the officer, who declined to be named.
An AFP correspondent saw the blackened bodies of five of those killed, a father and his four children, at the hospital in Tyre.
The father of two of the other children killed, Mahmoud Ghannam, 55, who was not with the targeted convoy, broke down when he arrived at the hospital.
"My God, my God. I can't make out the faces of my children. They are burnt black... Which ones are my children?" he cried, repeatedly hitting his head with his hands.
"My God, Israel is the enemy of mankind," he wailed.
Ten other people were transported to hospital for treatment for burns and fractures, medics said.
Initial reports had put the number of children killed at nine and said the missiles had been fired by an Israeli helicopter gunship.
One of the survivors, nine-year-old Batoul Aatrissi, said from her hospital bed: "There was a plane over our heads. My father parked on the side of the road. There was an explosion, the car was picked up and knocked over and we were thrown around the place."
Her 13-year-old cousin Sadeq, badly peppered with shrapnel, added: "I remember only one thing, finding myself alone in the car with its wheels in the air. I called out but there was nobody. Then I found myself here."
The deaths of the 18 in the convoy contributed to a total of 30 civilians killed in a series of Israeli raids across Lebanon on Saturday. Another 45 people were wounded.
A Lebanese army soldier was also killed in an Israeli military strike on the coastal city of Batroun, north of Beirut.
At least 92 civilians have been killed and 252 wounded in Lebanon since Israel began its assault on Lebanon after the capture of two soldiers and the killing of eight others by the Syrian-backed militant group Hezbollah early Wednesday.
The Israeli army said it regretted the deaths of civilians, but said Hezbollah militias were to blame for putting their lives in danger.
It said in a statement that it had targeted the area near Tyre because it was "used as launching grounds for missiles fired by Hezbollah terror organisation at Israel".
"The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) regrets civilian casualties while targeting the missile launching area," it said.
"Responsibility for endangering the civilian population rests on the organisation which operates and launches missiles at Israel from populated civilian areas," the army said.
Guerrillas have fired over 100 rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel over the past three days, killing four Israeli civilians.
Three people were also killed in another raid Saturday when Israeli jets struck the road leading to the main crossing of Masnaa between Lebanon and Syria, blocking passage across the border, police said.
And another three civilians were killed when Israeli jets fired missiles near a bridge on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Hermel on the border with Syria.
An Iraqi was killed and three other workers were wounded in an attack at a fuel station near the southern coastal city of Sidon, police said.
The only thing more intolerable than targeting non-combatants to defeat an enemy, is fighting a "restrained" war, and losing.
I fully agree.
Nutjobs. The whole lot of 'em. Its like watching the Orcs attack the Uruk-Hai in The Two Towers scene (or vice versa)
The only way to "peace and negotiations" is to hit the other side until they've had enough.
Unfortunately, the agressors in this case, could care less about their population (much like the evil dictators of the past, Hitler, Stalin, etc..). They don't care about their combatents, their wives, entire families, and even their children (they use civilian structures for war and send their childre off to be suicide bombers). This community unfortunately will never change their outlook and their thinking until they have been totally decimated much like Germany in WWII.
The children in the lower right corner looks less than enthusiastic. Perhaps they think it would be better to live.
PA Summer Camps Named for Suicide Bombers
The Germans stated the war, we (the Allies) finished it!
Right. Because Israelis are nutjobs for defending themselves. Do you feel the same way about the U.S.?
" The Germans stated the war, we (the Allies) finished it!"
That there is the key. If the Israelis have the will to do it, then it can be done.
This is what needs to be done:
1. Unfortunately there is no one to 'negotiate' with as far as Hezbullah is concerned. They're all terrorists, and none of them are going to come out and advocate 'peace', even if you wipe out every man, woman, and child in S. Lebannon. They simply don't care for their own people. So trying to do to Hezbullah what we did to Hitler will not work.
2. The Israelis need to destroy and inflict as much damage to S. Lebannon as possible, but then they need to have someone step in and 'take over' S. Lebanon who can have TOTAL CONTROL over that part of the country and not let the terrorists be in control. If not, the terrorists will re-group and return like tropical mosquitos.
3. The Israelis can't do it unless they want to be "occupiers", which they don't. So, who is left?
- the Lebanese? they don't have an army (only politicians in Beirut)
- the UN? get serious!
- the US? not on your life!
- the Egyptians? Jordanians? French? Germans? Italians? Chinese? who?
There is only country that can take control over that southern section (basically ANNEX it to their own country), and that is: SYRIA
Yes, Syria. The Israelis have a peacful border with them (no fighting) and could be kept under a watchful eye by Israel. In fact, Syria by taking "ownership" of that section, could be held directly responsible for any transgressions and would then face the consequences directly from Israel, something they would want to avoid.
It sounds far-fetched, but unless you see any other party who would be strong enough (militarily and culturally) to control the population in that area, there is no one else.
So true. This when Israel may wish Olmert was not PM and the voters had elected a stronger voice from the 'real' conservative wing of Likud, but that remains only wishful thinking. We have to deal with the here and now.
".Unfortunately there is no one to 'negotiate' with as far as Hezbullah is concerned."
Iran's Hizballah by nature is a self proclamied Shi'ite death cult, where as you are totally correct negotiating with Islamic serial killers is no only out of the question, but should not even be proposed. Only total victory and the surrender of the Islamic enemy is the only option. Israel must not get bogged down in a no win truce with murderers and hostage takers.
"So trying to do to Hezbullah what we did to Hitler will not work."
Bingo!
In terms of Assad's Syria, Damascus calls the real shots via Hizballah. I firmly believe eventually (& that may be soon) this war will reach the very doorsteps of Assad in the heart of Damascus and after that those which bankroll both Syria and Hizballah as well as Hamas, Islamic Iran. America and Israel battle the same forces of Iranian armed evil, in the Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The President should place Putin on notice in a private session, '..continue arming Iran and their terrorist proxies and Moscow will considered the source of Iranian back terrorism' and the United States will be forced to act accordingly. (More wishful thinking on my part)
And there is a downside to this?
Americans should never consider that the vast majority of the Lebanon's people are in full support of Hizballah.
Whose we, guy? Your kids died in 9-11? Because I know people who died that day and I'll bet 10 bucks you don't.
How did you post from tomorrow?
Welcome to Free Republic.
Cheers!
...BTW, do you like cats?
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