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Bombing Obliterates Last Route Out of Tyre
Smoke rises after missiles hit a Tyre apartment complex that was the scene of an Israeli raid Saturday.
(By Ben Curtis -- Associated Press)
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He pointed less than a mile away, where the missiles had destroyed the apartment buildings.
"How many are under those four buildings?" Mroue asked.
Mteirak shook his head, glum like Mroue. "God knows," he said.
Israeli naval commandos, under cover of night, had attacked a single apartment in one of the buildings on Saturday, killing four people in a battle that stretched until dawn and spanned across the complex and into a citrus grove along the street. The apartment was gutted. Rifles, ammunition and two rocket-propelled grenades still littered the floor hours later. On Monday, that building, along with three others, was wrecked, only the antennas and satellite dishes still standing amid the splintered concrete and crushed red tile.
"It sounded like an earthquake," said Hussein Muennis, a resident who lived about 100 yards away.
Most of the buildings appeared to have been abandoned after the commando raid. Left behind in the wreckage was a piece of paper from a school report: "Hello! My name is Rana. I am 6 years old." A brass kettle was tipped over, brown tea leaves spilling out. A red, heart-shaped pillow with yellow fringe was partially buried. "I love you," it read.
A playful tune sounded from a child's toy buried underneath other wreckage.
Along a cinder-block wall, graffiti in blue read: "Welcome."
"We Lebanese have lived through everything, but this is enough," said Ahmed Dubouk, a 68-year-old neighbor.
"What a pity!" he said, walking through the wreckage. "What a pity! I swear to God, it's a pity!"
The Israeli military said Hezbollah teams firing missiles toward northern Israel were based at the complex, and hours later, witnesses said they saw men who appeared to be Hezbollah militiamen moving from building to building before leaving. Residents seemed aware of the activity, and a Red Cross worker said most appeared to have fled soon after the commando raid Saturday.
"Ninety or 95 percent of the people had left," said Ali Sweidan, a 43-year-old ambulance driver.
