Hezbollah Fighters Kill 9 Israeli Soldiers

United Nations soldiers from China watch at the rubble of a destroyed building that was attacked by Israeli warplane missiles last week, as they search for the bodies of missing persons in the outskirts of the southern coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon Wednesday, July 26, 2006. A Nigerian U.N. employee, his wife and five Lebanese people were buried when the bomb flattened their home. Three of the five Lebanese were removed, including the body of a child. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) (Lefteris Pitarakis - AP)

The chief of Israel's northern command warned that the fight would drag on.

"I assume it will continue for several more weeks, and in a number of weeks we will be able to (declare) a victory," Maj. Gen. Udi Adam told a news conference.

While the ground battle was intensifying, the bombardment in rest of Lebanon appeared to be easing. Israeli jets were heard repeatedly over Beirut in the evening, but the capital saw no strikes.

About 24 airstrikes were reported outside the immediate border region Wednesday, down from nearly 30 a day recently. One strike in the center of the southern port of Tyre collapsed the top floor and ripped the facade off an empty seven-story building where Hezbollah's top commander in the south has offices. The strike wounded 13 people, including six children, nearby.

Warplanes continued to target trucks at a time when aid groups are worried about moving aid to the south by truck. Three trucks carrying vegetables were hit in the Bekaa Valley and another on a road between Syria and Beirut.

The eight deaths in Bint Jbail, which Israel has been trying to take for four days, were the heaviest Israeli casualties in a single battle during the Lebanon campaign.

Israeli troops had thought they'd secured the area around the town, but the guerrillas ambushed a patrol before dawn, said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman. A rescue force went in, and fighting escalated. Hezbollah said its guerrillas ambushed an Israeli unit from three sides as it tried to advance from a ridge on the outskirts of the town.

Eight soldiers were killed and 22 wounded in the fighting, the army said. It later reported a ninth soldier killed and several other casualties in the nearby village of Maroun al-Ras.

At least 30 guerrillas were killed Wednesday, an Israeli military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Hezbollah announced no casualties; it has acknowledged 19 dead in four days of fighting around Bint Jbail.

So far, Israeli troops have gone house to house taking positions on the outskirts of the town, without going far inside Bint Jbail, the Israeli official said.

Bint Jbail has great symbolic importance for the Hezbollah guerrillas, who are Shiite Muslims. It has the largest Shiite community in the border area and was known as the "capital of the resistance" during Israel's 1982-1990 occupation because of its vehement support for Hezbollah.

An Israeli seizure of the town would rob Hezbollah of a significant refuge overlooking northern Israel and force its fighters to operate from smaller, more vulnerable villages in the south.

Wednesday's deaths brought to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the campaign, including 32 members of the military, according to the military.

In Lebanon, at least 423 people have been killed _ including 376 civilians reported by the Health Ministry and security officials, 20 Lebanese soldiers and 27 fighters Hezbollah has acknowledged were killed. Israel says more than 100 guerrillas have been killed.

About 100 foreigners who had been visiting family homes in Yaroun _ a few miles from Bint Jbail _ fled to Tyre and said their village had been ravaged by bombardment. Most of the foreigners were Americans of Lebanese descent.

"It was worse than a nightmare. I saw dogs and cats on bodies that couldn't be taken from bombed-out houses. We ran from one building to another trying to escape the bombing," said Ali Abbas Tehfi of Los Angeles.

"It didn't stop. It didn't stop even for a day. Everything is finished," he said. He said an unknown number of Americans were still trapped in Yaroun.

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AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Sheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut and Katherine Shrader and Victor L. Simpson in Rome contributed to this story.