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Israel blitzes, diplomacy falters
15/07/2006 12:09 - (SA)
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| View of a destroyed bridge over a damaged highway after it was struck by an Israeli missile. (Lefteris Pitarakis, AP) |
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Beirut - Israel kept up its blistering offensive against Lebanon on Saturday after Hezbollah guerrilla leader Hassan Nasrallah defiantly declared open war in a conflict that appears to be spiralling dangerously out of control despite international calls for restraint.
Lebanon failed at an emergency UN Security Council debate to secure any action for a cease-fire to halt Israel's fiercest assault on its neighbour in a decade, underscoring rifts among world powers over how to handle the crisis.
Combat jets bombarded Lebanon in a series of dawn raids, slamming missiles into bridges and petrol stations and killing four people on the fourth day of fighting that has so far claimed the lives of at least 90 people on both sides.
"You wanted an open war, you will get an open war," Nasrallah warned as he emerged unscathed after Israeli air strikes late on Friday destroyed his home and office in Beirut's southern suburbs.
And in a dramatic new development, Nasrallah boasted that Hezbollah had struck an Israeli warship patrolling off the coast of Lebanon, telling his supporters to "watch it burning".
Israel has recovered the body of one of four sailors missing after the attack on the vessel, which reports said was hit either by a rocket or an explosives-laden drone.
Another civilian ship, believed to be Egyptian, was also hit and set ablaze.
'We will wipe him out...'
As a fresh barrage of guerrilla rockets rained on northern Israel from Lebanon, Israel warned that Nasrallah was still in its sights.
"We will wipe him out at the first opportunity. That's why he had better pray to Allah," said cabinet minister Zeev Boim.
Despite urgent appeals for restraint, international diplomatic efforts at containing the conflict have so far failed, with the United States standing firmly behind its ally Israel despite growing criticism of its actions.
The onslaught was unleashed after Hezbollah guerrillas snatched two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday, opening up a new battleground following a similar deadly offensive against Gaza over the capture of another soldier by Palestinian militants three weeks ago.
Israel is under fire from some members of the Security Council, including France and Russia, for using "disproportionate force" against Lebanon and Gaza.
But at Friday's debate, the United States refused to caution restraint from Israel, instead laying the blame firmly at the feet of Israel's archfoes Iran and Syria.
Former Israeli premier Ehud Barak also said he did not rule out military strikes against Syria, which backs Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movmement Hamas - both regarded as terror groups by the United States.
Lebanon is virtually cut off from the outside world after Israel imposed an air and sea blockade, launched repeated strikes on the country's only international airport and bombed the main highway to neighbouring Syria as well as bridges and power stations.
"Lebanese brace for long war" was the front-page headline in the English-language Daily Star.
'Lebanon is paying a very heavy price'
Shops have been closed up as Lebanese scramble to stock up on basic necessities, with many Beirut residents planning to flee for the perceived safety of the mountains outside the capital.
In a sign that there would be no early easing of the crisis, Israel army chief Dan Halutz warned his forces would continue to strike Hezbollah and other infrastructure targets in Lebanon.
"Lebanon is paying a very heavy price because of Hezbollah: bridges, roads and airports destroyed - and it could yet be deprived of other infrastructure," he said.
Northern Israel has been hit by a barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon since Wednesday, including an attack that reached as far south as the Mediterranean port city of Haifa.
Four people have been killed and scores wounded, sending tens of thousands of residents into bomb shelters or fortified rooms.
On Saturday, four civilians, including an Egyptian worker, were killed in a series of Israeli air raids across southern and eastern Lebanon. War planes also struck the suburbs of Tripoli, in the first such strike so far north.
"It's sparing nobody, in no area of Lebanon. Actually it is cutting the country into pieces, whereby more than 20 bridges in the country have been destroyed," Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told CNN.
A UN mission despatched to the region by Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in Egypt on Friday ahead of an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers.
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