Israel pounds Lebanon
2006-07-17 07:23
Beirut - Israeli air strikes killed at least 19 people in Lebanon on Monday, and Hezbollah announced more rocket attacks on Israel after world powers put the onus on the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Shi'ite guerrilla group to end the fighting.
Overnight raids destroyed two army posts on the northern
Lebanese coast, killing nine Lebanese soldiers, and damaged the
homes of Hezbollah officials in eastern Lebanon, killing five
people in over 45 strikes on the sixth day of violence.
Israeli warplanes also struck the port of Beirut early on Monday morning, killing two civilians, whose bodies lay on the ground at the harbour, AFP reported.
Three more people died in strikes south of Beirut. Several
thunderous blasts echoed over the capital at dawn and black
smoke rose from a blazing fuel storage depot in the Christian
suburb of Dora.
Civilian installations, petrol stations and
factories elsewhere were also hit, security sources said.
G8 calls for end to attacks
Leaders of the G8 powers meeting in Russia said on Sunday
Israel had a right to self-defence, telling Hezbollah to free
two Israeli soldiers it captured on Wednesday and to end its
cross-border attacks.
They did not call for a ceasefire.
Disarming Hezbollah
Israel is also demanding the disarming of Hezbollah in line
with UN security council resolutions - a task that is beyond
a fragile Lebanese government dependent on consensus among rival
sectarian groups, of which Shi'ite Muslims form the largest.
Lebanon, just emerging from three decades of Syrian
tutelage, fears that any attempt to tackle Hezbollah directly
would re-ignite civil war and split its army.
Hezbollah wants to trade the Israeli soldiers for Lebanese
and Palestinian prisoners in Israel and paid no heed to pleas
from UN and EU envoys on Sunday to release its captives.
Deadly attack on Israel
The same day it rocketed Haifa, killing eight people in its
deadliest attack on Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Hezbollah's attack
would have far-reaching consequences for Lebanon.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the attack on
Haifa, Israel's third-biggest city, was retaliation for its
killing of civilians and promised more "surprises".
"We are just at the beginning," he said.
Israel's army later said rockets fired by Hezbollah guerrillas struck a town 50km south of the border.
Hezbollah said it had also fired Katyusha rockets at the towns
of Nahariya and Acre in northern Israel.
Reuters and AFP
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