Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Israel, Lebanon escalate violence

both sides attack: Israel destroys the headquarters of Hezbollah's leader, while the group rams an Israeli military ship, setting it on fire.world leaders urge calm: But in sharp contrast with some of his colleagues, President Bush refuses to call for a cease fire.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 15, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah rammed an Israeli warship with an unmanned aircraft rigged with explosives Friday, setting it ablaze after Israeli warplanes smashed Lebanon's links to the world one by one and destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic guerrilla group's leader.

The attack on the warship off Beirut's Mediterranean coast - which left four sailors missing - was the most dramatic incident on a violent day in the conflict that erupted suddenly Wednesday and appeared to be careening out of control despite pleas from world leaders for restraint on both sides.

"You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war," Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a taped statement. He vowed to strike even deeper into Israel with rockets.

Israel again bombarded Lebanon's airport and main roads in the most intensive offensive against the country in 24 years. For the first time it struck the crowded Shiite neighborhood of south Beirut around Hezbollah's headquarters, toppling overpasses and sheering facades off apartment buildings.

In another maritime strike, Israel said that a Hezbollah rocket barrage missed its target and struck a civilian merchant ship.

They did not know the nationality of the ship, or whether there were casualties.

The toll in three days of clashes rose to 73 killed in Lebanon and at least 12 Israelis, as international alarm grew over the fighting and oil prices rose to above $77 a barrel.

President Bush called the leaders of Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan to explore ways to end the fighting.

Turning aside complaints that Israel is using excessive force, Bush rejected a cease-fire plea from Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

"The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency session on the violence, and Lebanon accused Israel of launching "a widespread barbaric aggression," aimed at bringing the small nation to its knees.

Special envoy Nouhad Mahmoud urged the Security Council to establish a cease-fire and to end the air and sea blockade of Lebanon imposed by Israel.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sent a U.N. team to the region.

Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman told the Security Council that Israel had no choice but to react to the "absolutely unprovoked attack" by Hezbollah.

"Israel's actions were in response to an act of war from Lebanon," he said, stressing that it was concentrated mainly on Hezbollah strongholds.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton called on Hezbollah to disarm and disband immediately and urged the Lebanese government to exercise "sole and exclusive control over all Lebanese territory."

He also vetoed a resolution that would have condemned Israel's military incursion into Gaza.

The ramming of the Israeli missile warship indicated Hezbollah has added a weapon to the arsenal of rockets and mortars it has used against Israel. The Israeli army said the ship carrying several dozen sailors suffered severe damage and was set on fire. Several hours after the attack, the fire was put out and the ship was being towed to Israel. The military confirmed news reports that four sailors were missing and said a search for them was under way.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed the campaign would continue until Hezbollah guerrillas, who are backed by Syria and Iran, lose their near-control of southern Lebanon bordering Israel.

Olmert agreed in a phone call with Annan to allow U.N. mediation for a cease-fire - but only if the terms include the disarming of Hezbollah and the return of two Israeli soldiers whose capture by the Muslim guerrillas Wednesday triggered the fighting.

Hezbollah rained dozens of rockets on towns in northern Israel. One rocket hit a home in Meron, killing a woman and her grandson. Some 220,000 people in northern towns hunkered down in bomb shelters.

At least one rocket hit the large coastal city of Haifa, which previously was out of range of the projectiles, causing no injuries but raising alarm at the prospect of deadly strikes on major Israeli urban centers.

The militant group denied having fired on Haifa.

Nasrallah was not hurt after the Israeli missiles demolished his headquarters among two buildings in Beirut's southern neighborhoods, the militant group said. Three people died in the airstrikes.

The attack on the warship was apparently timed to coincide with Nasrallah's message on the militant group's television station. "Now in the middle of the sea, facing Beirut, the Israeli warship that has attacked the infrastructure, people's homes and civilians - look at it burning," Nasrallah said.

Israel holds Lebanon responsible for the capture of its two soldiers in a surprise Hezbollah raid; the Lebanese government insists it had nothing to do with the attack. However, Israel wants it to rein in the guerrillas, a move Lebanon has long resisted.

The level of damage inflicted by Israel appeared finely calibrated. For example, a missile punched a hole in a major suspension bridge on the Beirut-Damascus road but did not destroy it, unlike less expensive bridges on the road that were brought down.

Throughout the morning, Israeli fighter-bombers pounded runways at Beirut's airport for a second day, apparently trying to ensure its closure.

In contrast with Bush's stand, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, "No hostage-takings are acceptable ... but neither is the use of full-scale force in response to these, even if unlawful, actions. We will demand that all sides involved in the conflict immediately stop the bloodshed."

French President Jacques Chirac accused Israel of going too far. "One could ask if today there is not a sort of will to destroy Lebanon, its equipment, its roads, its communications," he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned that Israel's Lebanon offensive "is raising our fears of a new regional war" and urged world powers to intervene.

Shiite clerics in Iraq denounced Israel's attacks on Lebanon during Friday prayers, and hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated to show solidarity with the Lebanese.

Also Friday, Palestinian militants forced open a border gate between Egypt and Gaza, letting hundreds of people pour across despite warning shots from Israeli helicopter gunships.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Palestinian militants tunneled under the border June 25 and attacked an Israeli army post, killing two soldiers and capturing a third.

The Rafah border crossing - Gaza's main gateway to the outside world - has largely been closed since then.

At least 600 people - mostly students and patients trapped at the border in the weeks the Rafah crossing was closed - passed freely over the frontier.

Information from the Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

[Last modified July 15, 2006, 00:28:29]