| Page 2 of 3 < > |
Israeli Warplanes Hit Lebanon's Christian Areas
An Israeli soldier works the phone after returning across the border from South Lebanon. Israelis say they seek to intercept weapons from Syria.
(By John Moore -- 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  |
The guerrillas destroyed an Israeli tank near Aita al-Shaab, just across the border, and took out another armored vehicle near Markaba, south of Taibe, Hezbollah said. In all, seven Israeli vehicles were damaged, the group said, and six Israeli soldiers were killed.
The Israeli military said only three of its soldiers were killed -- two enlisted men and an officer who were hit by an antitank missile as they patrolled on foot in Markaba. Their deaths brought to 44 the number of Israeli soldiers listed as killed in the conflict.
About 30 Israeli civilians have been killed by Hezbollah rockets since the war began, according to a government count.
At the United Nations, negotiations continued in an effort to arrange a cease-fire and a political settlement leading to deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
Mohamad Anwar Mohamad Nor, armed forces chief of Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, said Friday that his government was prepared to contribute 1,000 troops to such a force after a cease-fire was in place, the state news agency Bernama reported.
But as the casualties have mounted, the logic of mutual retaliation seemed to be overwhelming hopes for diplomacy, with both sides signaling determination to fight on. Israeli forces kept up pressure in the Gaza Strip as well, killing three people, according to Palestinian sources.
The farmworkers who died in Lebanon, some of them Syrians, were killed by Israeli missiles near the village of Qaa in the northernmost corner of the fertile Bekaa Valley, just beside the border with Syria, as they loaded fruit and potatoes on trucks for transport to markets, according to Lebanese media reports quoting local officials. The number of deaths was estimated at between 28 and 33, with more than a dozen people wounded, the reports said.
Qaa Mayor Nicola Matar, in a telephone interview with Lebanon's Future TV, put the death toll at 31. Lebanese television stations showed rows of bodies, blackened and distorted by the blast, lined up on the ground where the missiles hit.
An Israeli military spokesman, Capt. Jacob Dallal, said Israeli planes attacked a building in Qaa suspected of "being used as a weapons depot of some sort." By his account, Israeli forces identified a truck that entered the building, remained an hour, then returned across the border to Syria.
Syria has long been the main transit point for Hezbollah weapons and money supplied by Iran. But despite frequent attacks by Israeli warplanes in the area, some trucks loaded with missiles and other munitions are still getting through, according to a Lebanese source with access to military intelligence.
An Israeli military spokesman said the bridges north of Beirut were bombed Friday because Hezbollah fighters "have been using those roads as alternate route for bringing weapons from Syria to southern Lebanon."
Two spans were damaged on the northbound side at the famous Casino du Liban near Juniyah. A third was blasted, also on the northbound side, at Maameltein, just north of Juniyah, killing four passengers in a minibus that happened to be passing by, according to witnesses.
