Lebanese Father Mourns Loss of Family

Lebanese Khamel Ali Abdallah, 36, holds his six-year-old daughter Lara in his lap in the village of Marwaheen, southern Lebanon, Friday, Aug. 25, 2006. Lara was one of only four people to survive a July 15 Israeli attack on a convoy of Lebanese who were trying to flee fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel. Abdallah lost his wife and five of his children, all but Lara, in the attack. Early in the war, the Israeli army warned villagers here to get out of the battle zone. Panicky people sought refuge at a nearby U.N. post, but were turned away, leaving many skeptical about expanding the peacekeeping force to help police the truce. (AP Photo/Todd Pitman) (Todd Pitman - AP)

A sick feeling came over him.

Desperate for news, he called his brother in Sidon. His brother told him he had something important to tell him, but he could not do it on the phone.

Abdallah knew what it was and wept.

Twenty-three people in the two-vehicle convoy were killed in the assault, carried out by an Israeli gunboat and an attack helicopter that strafed the survivors.

Only four people survived. One was Abdallah's 6-year-old daughter, Lara, who miraculously crawled out of the burning wreckage without a scratch, but covered in blood and screaming.

Her aunt, Zeinab, said Lara was in her mother's lap when the vehicle was struck and her mother's body had shielded her. Zeinab survived only because she had stepped away from the vehicle, which had overheated or broken down, and was sitting by the road.

His wife and five other children _ a 2-year-old daughter and sons aged 8, 12, 13 and 14 _ were killed.

"God protected her, this little girl," Abdallah said, cradling her in his lap. "I thank God. She is all I have left."

Across south Lebanon, the yellow flags of Hezbollah fly over the rubble of destroyed houses. Hung across roads in Hezbollah strongholds, yellow banners proclaim "Our Blood has Won" in Arabic, French and English. The Islamic militia says it won an asymmetrical war simply by surviving.

But there are no Hezbollah banners in Marwaheen. Here black flags fly from rooftops.

"Nobody won this war," Abdallah said, wearing black trousers and a black shirt.

He leaned down, put his cheek to Lara's and ran his hand through her hair. She hopped down and ran giddily from room to room, too young to understand she'll never see her mother and five brothers again.

On a wind-swept hilltop cemetery overlooking a deep valley, the 23 slain were buried Thursday in coffins under a patch of dark red earth. Simple cinder blocks topped with pictures kept in place by loose stones mark their locations until proper grave stones can be brought in.

"The Lebanese people, the civilians, we are the losers," Abdallah said softly. "We have lost everything."