| Page 4 of 4 < |
Hezbollah Unleashes Fiery Barrage
Israeli soldiers prepare to cross the Lebanese border as part of a widening ground campaign. About six combat brigades were involved in fighting across the south, an Israeli general said.
(By Uriel Sinai -- Getty Images)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Meanwhile, new details emerged about a Tuesday night raid by Israeli special forces on a hospital in the northern Lebanese town of Baalbek. Lebanese officials and witnesses said 24 civilians had been killed by Israeli fire, while a top Israeli commander said five Hezbollah fighters had been taken captive and 10 killed.
Halutz said the Israeli raid into Baalbek, the most ambitious air and ground operation of the current conflict, had been conducted to demonstrate that Israeli forces could strike anywhere. It began at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday with a large gun battle at the Dar al-Hikma Hospital on the edge of the city, according to municipal officials and local journalists.
Other raids on a half-dozen sites around Baalbek quickly followed, with clashes lasting up to five hours in some places, they said.
The road from the entrance to Baalbek to the hospital was littered with more than 20 strafed cars, the charred bodies of their drivers still in the front seat, witnesses reported by telephone Wednesday morning.
Eleven other civilian motorists were killed in their cars as they drove along the road to the hospital, according to witnesses and local officials, who provided names for all the victims.
Halutz said the hospital building was being used as a Hezbollah logistics base and storage site for weapons. Hezbollah fighters prohibited reporters from approaching the hospital, which they said had been emptied of patients at the beginning of the war. Local officials said a number of Hezbollah fighters and guards were inside.
Israel has not released the identities of the five Hezbollah fighters it says it captured. One of the Israeli helicopters used in the Baalbek raid strafed Al-Jamaliyeh, a village near the hospital, killing seven people, witnesses and officials said. The victims included Awad Jamaleddin, the brother of Mayor Hussein Jamaleddin; the mayor's wife; his son Maxim; and several visitors.
In the nearby farmlands, the helicopters sent withering fire across the countryside, killing six members of one Bedouin family living in a tent near potato fields, witnesses and officials said. The father, Talal Shibley, lost his right hip and leg, while his wife, Maha Chaaban, and five children were killed.
At the United Nations, officials announced that a meeting of countries that might send troops to help stabilize southern Lebanon had been postponed, calling it premature to discuss deploying peacekeepers before approving a plan for peace between Israel and Hezbollah.
Correspondents Anthony Shadid in Tyre, Nora Boustany in Beirut and Molly Moore in Jerusalem and special correspondents Tal Zipper in Kiryat Shemona and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
