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'War comes back to Lebanon'
14/07/2006 12:41 - (SA)
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| A Lebanese woman walks through rubble under a bridge that was damaged by Israeli air raids in the suburbs of Beirut. (Hussein Malla, AP)
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Beirut - Power stations burning, black smoke billowing from the airport, bridges destroyed and large craters gouged out of main roads were among the near-apocalyptic scenes of destruction in Lebanon on Friday after Israel's massive onslaught.
"War comes back to Lebanon," screamed a bold headline in the English-language The Daily Star.
"Israeli war on Lebanon on its second day: 50 martyrs," said the Arabic-language As-Safir.
At least 50 dead
The front pages of the Beirut dailies were splashed with gruesome photographs of dead children and entire families wiped out by the Israeli strikes, which have left at least 50 dead since Wednesday.
In Israel, they called it "Just Reward", the military operation launched after the Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday.
Glass and rubble
Shards of glass and rubble filled the streets of Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold hit in early morning air raids on Friday.
Families, red-eyed from lack of sleep, swept up glass outside homes and shops as tractors tried to open side roads onto main arteries blocked by craters and debris.
Many businesses stayed shut and few people had slept because of overnight air strikes that rained widespread destruction on main roads and bridges.
'Death to Israel!'
Crowds of angry men gathered at the main bridge leading to the nearby Beirut airport. Much of the bridge has collapsed onto the road underneath, crushing several vehicles.
"Hezbollah, resistance, death to Israel!" shouted the men.
The facade of a commercial building nearby was devastated, and most windows in a private hospital were shattered.
A large effigy of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini towers over the area, raising his right hand as if in greeting.
About 50 civilians were wounded in pre-dawn Israeli raids on Hezbollah's command headquarters in Beirut's Shi'ite-dominated southern suburbs.
Overall, at least 50 civilians, including children and entire families, have been killed and around 150 others wounded since Israel began its assault on Lebanon after the two soldiers were captured and eight others were killed by Hezbollah two days ago.
Airport attacked again
As civil defence workers battled to put out the flames caused by an air strike on fuel tanks at Beirut airport, Israeli aircraft attacked it for the third time in 24 hours.
The strikes on Lebanon's only international airport have halted flights to and from the country, and an overnight strike on Jiyeh power station south of the capital has brought power rationing to Beirut and nearby areas.
At the Mar Mkhayel church crossroads, at the entrance of the suburbs, a badly damaged commercial centre towers over a huge crater in the road. It is so deep that a hatchback car is submerged in its muddy waters.
'Surely not admissible'
"I am not sure Hezbollah was right in escalating the situation, but it is surely not admissible for Israel to wreak devastation and kill civilians like that," said one man who preferred not to give his name.
Another, Mohammed Haidar, told AFP that his family of five had accepted 15 neighbours, including children, who sought refuge in their home because he lives on the first floor.
"The children were crying and screaming every time there was a strike, and we just watched the attacks on television," he said.
Families flee
Hussein Ali, the father of three girls, had a better idea.
"I just drove to Hadath," a nearby Christian-dominated region, he said.
"We thought that it will not be attacked by the Israelis, so I parked the car on a street there, and we just waited for the attacks to end."
- AFP
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