Posted on 07/21/2006 10:12:59 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
An Israeli soldier maneuvers an armored personnel carrier at their position along the Israeli Lebanese border. Israel was amassing thousands more reservists on the Lebanese border to stage ground incursions aimed at destroying Hezbollah positions, warning it would not rule out a full-scale invasion despite mounting calls for a ceasefire.
MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (Reuters) - Israel ousted Hizbollah guerrillas from a stronghold just inside Lebanon on Saturday after several days of fierce fighting, the army said, as it bombarded targets across the south of the country.
Ground forces commander Major-General Benny Gantz said Israeli soldiers took the hilltop village of Maroun al-Ras, where six Israeli commandos have been killed this week, inflicting dozens of casualties on Hizbollah.
Israel said it planned no full-scale invasion of Lebanon for now, but warned villagers near the border to leave.
In the town of Marjayoun, about five miles from the border, cars packed with people waving white flags fled north fearing Israel will step up an 11-day-old war which has killed 351 people, mostly civilians.
There was no immediate comment from the Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla group, which had said in an earlier statement its fighters had inflicted casualties on the Israeli side.
An Israeli army spokesman had said troops backed by around a dozen tanks and armored vehicles had been fighting in Maroun al-Ras, about two km (one mile) inside Lebanese territory, and found Hizbollah bunkers and weapons stores.
He said Israel might widen its military action, but was still looking at "limited operations." "We're not talking about massive forces going inside at this point."
Resisting growing calls for a ceasefire, the United States stressed the need to tackle what it sees as the root cause of the conflict -- Hizbollah's armed presence on Israel's border and the role of its allies, Syria and Iran.
"Resolving the crisis demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that support it," U.S President George W. Bush said on Saturday, a day before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to head to Israel.
Israeli forces had urged residents of 14 villages in south Lebanon to leave by 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) ahead of more air raids.
TROOP BUILD UP
Israel has built up its forces at the border and called up 3,000 reserves. Defense Minister Amir Peretz has spoken of a possible land offensive to halt rocket attacks that have killed 15 Israeli civilians in the past 11 days.
But Israel is wary of mounting another invasion, only six years after it ended a costly 22-year occupation of the south. Already, 19 soldiers have been killed in the latest conflict.
Israeli air raids hit transmission stations used by several Lebanese television channels and a mobile telephone mast north of Beirut, cutting mobile phone services in northern Lebanon.
The official in charge of the station transmitting LBC programs was killed, the channel said. A nun at a nearby church said two French nationals were also lightly wounded.
Israel's army said it hit a Hizbollah radio and TV transmitter and an antenna for frequencies "used by Hizbollah." Hizbollah's al-Manar television was still broadcasting after the strikes.
Israeli medics and the army said at least 10 Hizbollah rockets hit towns in northern Israel, wounding 10 people.
Across south Lebanon, families piled into cars and trucks -- flying white sheets they hoped would ward off attack -- and clogged roads north after Israel warned residents to flee for safety beyond the Litani river, about 12 miles from the border.
But witnesses said an Israeli air strike hit one of the few remaining crossings over the river early on Saturday.
The war started when Hizbollah captured two soldiers and killed eight in a July 12 raid into Israel, which had already launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip to try to recover another soldier seized by Palestinian militants on June 25.
Washington supports proposals for an expanded international force on the Israel-Lebanon border but details were not fixed, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. A 2,000-strong U.N. force monitors the border at present.
Amid growing concern about the plight of civilians in Lebanon, Israel said it would ease humanitarian access.
U.N. relief agencies have called for safe passage to take in food and medical supplies. An estimated half million people have fled their homes.
Foreigners have also flooded out of the country. Ships and aircraft worked through the night scooping more tired and scared people from Lebanon and taking them to Cyprus and Turkey.
(Additional reporting by Jerusalem, Nicosia, Washington bureaux)
Lebanese Army deserters?
I recall when he went on the Leno show after his Iraq war coverage. All that was missing was him sitting in the seat kicking his feet like a little kid, he looked like an idiot enjoying what he thought was his comeuppance as a big news/war reporter. It was almost pitiful.
GAZA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Jihad (Holy War) denied on Saturday that Palestinian militant groups had offered a truce with Israel.
CNN reported earlier that a senior Palestinian official revealed on condition of anonymity that the Palestinian militants would halt launching homemade rockets into Israel if Israel stopped its air and ground strike against the Gaza Strip.
Abu Ahmed, spokesman for the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, said in a statement that the report about ceasefire was totally untrue.
"Some parties (which he didn't name) aim to create confusion among the Palestinian people and their resistance forces against the Zionist occupation," he said.
He added that Islamic Jihad would continue attacks on Israel as long as Israeli kept assault on the Palestinians. Israel Radio, meanwhile, quoted Israeli army officials as saying that Israel won't stop its military offensive until an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants on June 25 is freed.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-07/23/content_4867856.htm
Israeli soldiers had deliberately fired near a Fox news crew after they (accidentally, I assume) revealed their position on the air. Maybe that's what's behind Shempie's bitchiness.
Maybe, but I still wish he'd STFU
Hence my tagline
IDF found stockpiles of Katyusha rockets in a mosque in Maroon Al Ras (sp).
Jennifer Griffen, FoxRox.
_______________________________________________________
It can't be. Bush said that Islam is the religion of peace.
hey kiddo.....
Thanks Tom - I was pretty sure I had heard that
Dude, Thanks. She is HOT
How are you? Just getting back in.
Tyre, Sidon. Hmmm. Scripture time.
Bush hasn't said that for a long, long time now. I think he got the message.
Weapons is a mosque? Surely you jest. Muslims would never hide weapons in a mosque. Their's is a religion of peace...
Blow it up.
Do you listen to David Gold on KSFO?
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