Posted on 07/18/2006 7:02:42 AM PDT by winner3000
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israel struck a Lebanese army base outside Beirut and flattened a house near the border, killing at least 16 people in a new wave of bombings, while Hezbollah fired more rockets at northern Israel. Diplomats stepped up efforts to end the conflict, which has sent foreigners fleeing by land, sea and air.
A cruise ship, the Orient Queen, was due to begin evacuating some of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon on Tuesday, and the Pentagon said a U.S. Naval destroyer was available to escort it. U.S. military helicopters have already ferried about a score of U.S. citizens to a British base on the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus. More helicopter transfers were planned, a U.S. official said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel will press on with the weeklong offensive until its captured soldiers are released and its citizens are safe from attacks.
"Israel will continue to combat Hezbollah and will continue to strike targets of the group," Olmert said in a statement.
The base in the southern area of Kfar Chima took a direct hit as the soldiers rushed to their bomb shelters, leaving at least 11 soldiers dead and 35 wounded, the Lebanese military said.
The Lebanese army has largely stayed out of the fighting, but its positions have been repeatedly attacked by Israeli warplanes, undermining Israel's call for it to help push back Hezbollah from the border.
At least five people also were killed when a bomb hit a house in the village of Aitaroun, near the border with Israel, witnesses said. Israeli warplanes also fired four missiles on the eastern city of Baalbek, wounding four, and southern Beirut — both Hezbollah strongholds, according to witnesses and news reports. Another attack targeted the southern town of Qana, Lebanese TV reported.
The Islamic militant group fired rockets that knocked down a three-story house in northern Israel, but no casualties were immediately reported.
An Associated Press reporter saw rockets strike near the port and a railway depot in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city. Medical services said there were no injuries in the attack.
Tuesday's deaths raised the toll from seven days of fighting to at least 226 people killed in Lebanon and 24 in Israel.
Israel was allowing evacuation ships through its blockade of the country. France and Italy moved hundreds of nationals and other Europeans out Monday on a Greek cruise liner. An Italian ship left earlier with 350 people and other governments were organizing pullouts by land to Syria.
India also has evacuated 49 of its citizens from embattled Beirut and stationed four naval vessels off the Lebanese coast to assist in future evacuations, officials said Tuesday.
Diplomatic efforts gained traction, with Israel signaling it might scale back its demands. Olmert said Monday that the two Israeli soldiers had to be released and Hezbollah must pull back from the border for fighting to halt.
An aide to Olmert indicated, however, that the prime minister was ready to compromise on the question of dismantling the Islamic militant group. But the aide said Olmert might oppose a U.N. and British idea of deploying international forces to Lebanon.
The current U.N. force in southern Lebanon has proven impotent and a larger, stronger force could hamper any future Israeli attacks, should any deal fall apart.
An Israeli Cabinet minister, Avi Dichter, meanwhile, said Tuesday that Israel may consider a prisoner swap with Lebanon to win the release of two soldiers captured by Hezbollah, but only after its military operation is complete.
"If one of the ways to bring home the soldiers will be negotiations on the possibility of releasing Lebanese prisoners I think the day will come when we will also have to consider this," the public security minister told Israel's Army Radio.
The crisis began on June 25, when Hamas-linked militants in the Gaza Strip carried out a cross-border attack on a military outpost in Israel, killing two soldiers and capturing one. Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas joined the fray in July, attacking a military patrol on the border in northern Israel, killing three soldiers and capturing two. Both Hamas and Hezbollah have said the two attacks were not related.
Dichter also said efforts to gain the release of the soldier being held by Hamas-linked militants in Gaza and the two being held by Hezbollah were not connected to one another.
Delivering an impassioned speech to Israel's parliament on Monday, Olmert said the country would have no mercy on Lebanese militants who attack its cities with rockets.
"We shall seek out every installation, hit every terrorist helping to attack Israeli citizens, destroy all the terrorist infrastructure, in every place. We shall continue this until Hezbollah does the basic and fair things required of it by every civilized person," he said.
Hezbollah's patron Iran, meanwhile, said a cease-fire and prisoner exchange would be acceptable and fair.
That was followed by a warning Tuesday from Iranian parliamentary speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, who said no part of Israel is safe from Hezbollah rockets. However, he is not among the most influential power brokers in the regime.
"The towns you have built in northern Palestine (Israel) are within the range of the brave Lebanese children. No part of Israel will be safe," he told thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators in Tehran.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special political adviser emerged from talks Monday with Lebanon's prime minister to say he would present Israel "concrete ideas" to end the fighting.
"We have made some promising first efforts on the way forward," the adviser, Vijay Nambiar, told reporters, while warning that much works needs to be done.
One U.N. official said Nambiar's mission had "very useful discussions" with Lebanon's prime minister and the speaker of Lebanon's parliament — a close ally of Hezbollah's leader.
"They have agreed on some specifics, and this is going to be carried to Israel, and they will probably go back to Lebanon if they are a promising signal," said the official, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari.
Late Monday, Hezbollah dismissed international cease-fire proposals as "Israeli conditions," accusing foreign envoys of allowing Israel time to continue its military offensive to force Lebanon into submission.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Annan called for sending international forces to southern Lebanon, and the United States said it did not oppose the idea.
On Israel's second front, in the Gaza Strip, troops pulled out of Beit Hanoun following a two-day incursion aimed at stopping militants from firing rockets at Israel. Six Palestinians were killed in two days of clashes, mostly gunmen, officials said.
The operation was the latest stage of Israel's wider offensive in Gaza, launched June 28 after Hamas-linked militants killed two soldiers and captured one.
Israeli troops, tanks and bulldozers caused heavy damage to houses, farmland, electric poles and underground water pipes during the operation. They also broke into a walled compound of four vacant U.N. schools, damaging three of them.
"The Israelis are not just targeting militants, they are attacking everything: our houses, trees, economy, even my bathroom," said Mahmoud Yazji, 30, as members of his family dug through their damaged home. ___
Associated Press writer Hussein Dakroub in Beirut and Sarah El Deeb in Beit Hanoun contributed to this report.
I blame the Lebanese government and the lebanese army.
I have a question for you: Who determines whether the people killed in Israel's attacks are "Lebanese" as opposed to Hezbollah/Hezbollah sympathizers/Syrians/Iranians/etc.? Do you really trust the victim count of the Lebanses government, given that they are anti-Israel and have allowed Hezbollah/Syria to run amok?
So what "agenda" do you speak of?
And what proof do you have that "Israel has targeted and killed more Lebanese soldiers than Hezbollah terrorists"?
"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." -- Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, before he ordered the destruction of Atlanta in 1864.
I'm watching FOX. They are showing live footage of Katushya rockets coming in to Baakai Valley (?) Anyway it's along the border.
Following the rocket fire, the Israelis have severl Howitzers set up and they are firing back, every ten or twelve minutes.
I'm thinking what could they be firing at?
Answer: I suspect that as soon as a Katushya is sent, the Israelis get a read on the location either via satellite, on the ground or whereever...and then they zero in on these guys.
This could last for a long time, but the bottom line is...the terrorists must be nuts!!!
Excellent. So they should curse Syria, Iran, Hezbullah.
This is so stupid. Israel has to bite the bullet and root out Hizbulla in Southern Lebanon. Israel hesitates because this will be nasty ground combat with Israel deaths. There will be traps and IED mines for tanks
I am curious as to what 25,000 U.S. citizens are doing in Lebanon. Can someone answer that? It is going to take more than one "cruise ship" to bring that many people back to the U.S.
"I am curious as to what 25,000 U.S. citizens are doing in Lebanon"
~~
Duel Citizenship.
Thank heavens. When I'm old and senile fifty years from now I'll still be able to talk with my grandkids about the recent tit-for-tat attacks, Israel bombing empty buildings and fields to "send a message", even though I'm completely senile and just repeating myself over and over from my failing memory.
Yep, dual citizenship. I've read in a number of sources that probably 20,000 of those 25,000 are in fact born in Lebanon and have dual citizenship via marriage to a born-in-U.S. citizen or because they are children of such a husband and wife.
I, for one, am disgusted at how easily these charges are lobbed at anyone questioning any facet of the operation.
Clearly trying to shut down any debate by calling folks prejiduced, AS, or a slew of other charges.
Excellent. Could not be better put. And it is foolish not believe that Iran and Syria are directly responsible. And lets not forget Russia and China. I blame their greed and they have supported Iran and Syria for years by selling missiles and technology they knew damn well that they were supporting terrorist. Never forget, Russia and China are co-conspirators.
You know, I wondered about that. And if the majority are dual citizenship, is it in our best interests, security-wise, to "rescue" them? I realize some are supporters of America, but I wonder how many truly are .....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.