OMEN
08-10-2006, 02:49 PM
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TIME TO GRIEVE: A relative of a victim killed when their building was hit by an Israeli raid mourns as Israeli troops pushed deeper into Lebanon today.
MARJAYOUN: Israeli troops battled Hizbollah deep into south Lebanon today, witnesses said, after Hizbollah's leader vowed to turn the area into a graveyard for the invading soldiers.
Witnesses said troops, under cover of heavy artillery shelling, were fighting fierce battles with guerrillas up to 10km from the border, after the cabinet decided to expand the ground war aimed at crippling the guerrilla group.
They said Israeli soldiers were close to the village of Dibeen near the town of Marjayoun, an area the Israelis have not reached before during the four-week-old war.
The Israeli army said it would not discuss specific deployments at this stage.
A military source said the operation was aimed at Hizbollah rockets being fired on the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona from the al-Khiam border area. He declined to elaborate.
With world powers divided on a UN resolution to try to end the war, the Israeli army said 15 of its soldiers and 40 Hizbollah guerrillas had been killed on Wednesday, one of the bloodiest days of fighting in the war, launched after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
Israeli television said today the bodies of Iranian Revolutionary Guards had been found among guerrillas killed in south Lebanon. There was no independent confirmation.
Hizbollah denied that any Iranians were taking part in the fighting alongside its guerrillas.
"Hizbollah categorically denies the lies and claims that the enemy is promoting that Iranian fighters are present in the confrontations with the occupation forces," the Lebanese guerrilla group said in a statement faxed to Reuters.
Hours earlier, Hizbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israeli forces against expanding their offensive and urged Arab residents of Haifa to evacuate the city to avoid being hurt by Hizbollah rockets.
"You won't be able to stay in our land, and if you come in, we'll force you out, we will turn our precious southern land into a graveyard for the invading Zionists," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
"We want an end to all the aggression but if there must be a showdown, then we welcome a showdown in the field." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet authorised a plan to send troops further, possibly to the Litani river, up to 20 km from the border. A senior political source said the expanded offensive could last 30 days.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reiterated that Israel had a right to defend itself but said Israel "must take the utmost care" to avoid civilian casualties.
The war has cost the lives of at least 1,005 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and more than 100 Israelis.
COMPLICATING DIPLOMACY
The Israeli push could complicate UN diplomacy to halt the fighting, though Western diplomats said Israeli officials had assured them the army was prepared to halt the wider campaign within days if an agreement was reached at the United Nations.
Diplomats are still working on a UN resolution aimed at ending the war but no Security Council vote seems imminent.
The United States and France differ on when an international force, expected to be led by France, should move in and when Israel should withdraw. Israel says it will only withdraw when a foreign force and the Lebanese army take over to keep Hizbollah at bay, and the United States backs this position.
"There are areas where we are still not in agreement," US Ambassador to the 15-member council John Bolton said. "I don't want to appear to minimise that."
French President Jacques Chirac threatened to introduce his own resolution if no compromise was reached but said he hoped there could still be an agreement.
Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a quick pullout of Israeli troops from the south, where it says 15,000 Lebanese government soldiers backed by UN peacekeepers can move in.
Nasrallah said an initial draft resolution rejected by Beirut because it did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal was "unjust and oppressive and gives the Israelis more than they wanted and demanded".
Israel is also pressing on with an offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 172 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, since June.
Warplanes today destroyed the Homes of two Palestinian militants in Beit Hanoun, a town near Gaza's northern border with Israel, evacuated after phone calls from the Israeli army.
Reuters
TIME TO GRIEVE: A relative of a victim killed when their building was hit by an Israeli raid mourns as Israeli troops pushed deeper into Lebanon today.
MARJAYOUN: Israeli troops battled Hizbollah deep into south Lebanon today, witnesses said, after Hizbollah's leader vowed to turn the area into a graveyard for the invading soldiers.
Witnesses said troops, under cover of heavy artillery shelling, were fighting fierce battles with guerrillas up to 10km from the border, after the cabinet decided to expand the ground war aimed at crippling the guerrilla group.
They said Israeli soldiers were close to the village of Dibeen near the town of Marjayoun, an area the Israelis have not reached before during the four-week-old war.
The Israeli army said it would not discuss specific deployments at this stage.
A military source said the operation was aimed at Hizbollah rockets being fired on the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona from the al-Khiam border area. He declined to elaborate.
With world powers divided on a UN resolution to try to end the war, the Israeli army said 15 of its soldiers and 40 Hizbollah guerrillas had been killed on Wednesday, one of the bloodiest days of fighting in the war, launched after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
Israeli television said today the bodies of Iranian Revolutionary Guards had been found among guerrillas killed in south Lebanon. There was no independent confirmation.
Hizbollah denied that any Iranians were taking part in the fighting alongside its guerrillas.
"Hizbollah categorically denies the lies and claims that the enemy is promoting that Iranian fighters are present in the confrontations with the occupation forces," the Lebanese guerrilla group said in a statement faxed to Reuters.
Hours earlier, Hizbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israeli forces against expanding their offensive and urged Arab residents of Haifa to evacuate the city to avoid being hurt by Hizbollah rockets.
"You won't be able to stay in our land, and if you come in, we'll force you out, we will turn our precious southern land into a graveyard for the invading Zionists," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
"We want an end to all the aggression but if there must be a showdown, then we welcome a showdown in the field." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet authorised a plan to send troops further, possibly to the Litani river, up to 20 km from the border. A senior political source said the expanded offensive could last 30 days.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reiterated that Israel had a right to defend itself but said Israel "must take the utmost care" to avoid civilian casualties.
The war has cost the lives of at least 1,005 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and more than 100 Israelis.
COMPLICATING DIPLOMACY
The Israeli push could complicate UN diplomacy to halt the fighting, though Western diplomats said Israeli officials had assured them the army was prepared to halt the wider campaign within days if an agreement was reached at the United Nations.
Diplomats are still working on a UN resolution aimed at ending the war but no Security Council vote seems imminent.
The United States and France differ on when an international force, expected to be led by France, should move in and when Israel should withdraw. Israel says it will only withdraw when a foreign force and the Lebanese army take over to keep Hizbollah at bay, and the United States backs this position.
"There are areas where we are still not in agreement," US Ambassador to the 15-member council John Bolton said. "I don't want to appear to minimise that."
French President Jacques Chirac threatened to introduce his own resolution if no compromise was reached but said he hoped there could still be an agreement.
Lebanon wants an immediate ceasefire and a quick pullout of Israeli troops from the south, where it says 15,000 Lebanese government soldiers backed by UN peacekeepers can move in.
Nasrallah said an initial draft resolution rejected by Beirut because it did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal was "unjust and oppressive and gives the Israelis more than they wanted and demanded".
Israel is also pressing on with an offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 172 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, since June.
Warplanes today destroyed the Homes of two Palestinian militants in Beit Hanoun, a town near Gaza's northern border with Israel, evacuated after phone calls from the Israeli army.
Reuters