LEBANON: Israeli troops push deeper in Lebanon, take casualties

Israeli forces pushed deeper into some parts of south Lebanon on Wednesday (August 9) despite fierce resistance from Hizbollah guerrillas, Lebanese security sources said. Al Arabiya television reported four Israeli soldiers had been killed in a rocket attack in the village of Aita al-Shaab. Al Jazeera said a total of 11 soldiers were killed in the fighting. The security sources said they believed several soldiers were killed when guerrillas blew up a booby-trapped house that an Israeli unit had entered near the village of Debel, 5 km (3 miles) from the border. The Israeli army had no immediate comment. The battles raged before Israel's inner cabinet approved an expansion of the ground offensive. Israel already has about 10,000 soldiers in the south. On Wednesday, two Israeli ships fired into Tyre. Smoke could be seen coming out of various locations in the coastal town. No casualties have been reported so far. Overnight, Israeli air strikes pounded Lebanon. Early Wednesday, an Israeli air strike killed one person and wounded six others in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, security and hospital sources said. They said the air strike targeted a position of the Palestinian armed Fatah movement in Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon. "I was sitting here, and they started bombing. The blast pushed me back and I got up and wanted to go back, I wanted to climb down the stairs but they were destroyed. And the power of the second blast pushed me back again," said eyewitness and Fatah militant Abu Yaser. The Israeli army said it had carried out an air strike on the house of a Hizbollah member in the camp. In northern Lebanon, Israeli missiles slammed into villages early Wednesday morning, damaging roads and a bridge which has been hit several times this week. Billaneh El Hissa, which is 8 km away from the Syrian -Lebanese border was struck, further blocking gateways to neighbouring Syria. In Araka, a bridge was hit by Israeli warplanes for the third time this week. The Araka bridge represents a vital road linking most of the coastal village to mountainous remote areas in the northern Lebanon. Israel also hit a road Akkar and Dinniye in the north. The extremist Islamic Jamaa group are known to be located in the area. In the southern town of Khiam, at least 10 Israeli air strikes and hundreds of artillery shells hit on Tuesday (August 8). Missiles were seen slamming into buildings. Witnesses said that a missile struck a former Israeli prison in the southern town. The shelling was described by residents as one of the most intense since Israel began its air and ground offensive in the country. In the town of Mashghara on Wednesday , Israeli air raids killed six people and wounded one, medical sources said. The raid on the town in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon struck a building where a local Hizbollah official lived, the sources said. The capital Beirut was not spared. On Wednesday, the southern suburbs was hit by several air strikes. The strikes took place as mourners were burying victims of a previous raid. The death toll from that air raid in Shiyyah, in the south Beirut suburb, on Monday (August 7) rose to 41 from 30, police said. Sixty-one people were also wounded in that strike. A mass grave had been prepared for the victims in Beirut's Ghobeiry neighbourhood, on the edge of the southern suburb. On Wednesday, three loud explosions were heard across the city. Witnesses said the explosions occurred near the Ghobeiry neighbourhood where the funeral was taking place, causing mourners to panic. Some left the area soon after the explosions were heard. Smoke was rising from the southern suburb which has been repeatedly hit during the four weeks of violence. Witnesses said Israeli planes fired missiles into the area, a Hizbollah stronghold which has been heavily bombarded since the fighting erupted. In a makeshift hospital at a horse race track on the outskirts of Beirut, work came to a brief halt as several explosions rocked the city. The growing number of wounded has been putting additional pressure on an already strained emergency care system which has seen the erection of makeshift hospitals. A woman visiting relatives at the Saudi field hospital, wept as she heard the sounds of explosions. "All those people who have been killed. And people are still dying, dying, dying. How far will we go? It's enough," said Fatmeh Nagar. At least 1,005 people in Lebanon and 101 Israelis have been killed in the bloodshed sparked when Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. Lebanese authorities say dozens more bodies are trapped under the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli air strikes. Israeli air strikes have destroyed around 70 bridges, as well as roads, airports and ports in damage estimated at more than $2.5 billion. The United Nations has led a wide array of complaints by humanitarian groups who say Israeli artillery, air strikes and a naval blockade are hindering them from helping many of the 800,000 to 1 million people displaced by the war in Lebanon.

ITN Source | August 10, 2006

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