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Israel widens its foothold in Lebanon

Israel seals off Guerrillas: Israel plans to maintain a security zone without pushing deep into Lebanon.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 26, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli troops sealed off a Hezbollah stronghold Tuesday and widened their foothold in southern Lebanon, but officials said Israeli bombs killed six people in a south Lebanon town and two U.N. observers in a border outpost, with two other peacekeepers feared dead.

Two weeks into the war, a senior Hezbollah leader said the guerrillas had not expected such an Israeli onslaught when they snatched two Israeli soldiers July 12.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other key Mideast players gathered in Rome for a meeting today to discuss proposals for ending the fighting that has claimed more than 400 lives. Key issues were how to disarm Hezbollah and assemble an international peacekeeping force to enforce the peace along the Israel-Lebanon frontier.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the strike on a clearly marked U.N. border outpost was "apparently deliberate" and demanded Israel investigate. A bomb dropped by an Israel warplane scored a direct hit on the post in the town of Khiyam, near the eastern sector of the border, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his "deep regret" for the deaths and denied Israel hit the post intentionally.

"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the U.N. post," he said, calling the assertions "premature and erroneous."

Israeli commanders said they would not push deep into Lebanon but were determined to stop Hezbollah missiles that have continued despite Israel's punishing raids on Hezbollah targets. A new volley of Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel, killing a teenage girl. Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, issued a taped television message saying guerrillas would now start firing rockets deeper into Israel.

Tuesday marked a month since the start of what is now a two-front war between Israel and Islamic militants. On June 25, an Israeli soldier was captured by Hamas militants in Gaza, prompting an Israeli offensive there. Two weeks into that flare-up, Hezbollah snatched the two other soldiers.

In that month, the crisis has spiraled far beyond anyone's imagining.

Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, said the group's leadership had not expected a massive offensive when it snatched the two Israeli soldiers. Instead, he said Hezbollah had thought that Israel would respond to the soldiers' capture by snatching Hezbollah leaders in commando raids and that negotiations for a swap would start, giving Hezbollah the chance to try to win the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.

He called the Israeli assault "unjustified" and said Hezbollah would not lay down its weapons.

Israel and the United States say their ultimate aim is to fundamentally reshape Lebanon to end Hezbollah's presence by the border, strengthen democracy in the country and ensure lasting peace with Israel. In the process, Lebanon has been ravaged, with hundreds killed, hundreds of thousands driven from their homes and vast damage to roads and bridges.

Israel is facing tougher-than-expected resistance as it makes it first small ground steps into hilltop villages across the border. Its troops sealed the town of Bint Jbail and battled for a second day Tuesday against around 200 guerrillas inside.

Troops also moved on the nearby village of Yaroun, fighting guerrillas there. Fifteen Americans fled Yaroun in a convoy of 80 cars carrying residents that reached the southern port of Tyre on Tuesday.

Hezbollah reported two guerrillas killed in the day's fighting, while Israel said three of its soldiers were wounded. The Israeli military said Hezbollah's commander for the central border sector, known as Abu Jafr, was killed.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would maintain a security zone in the south until either a multinational force "with enforcement capability" is deployed on the border or Hezbollah is pushed back in a cease-fire agreement that also cuts off the supply of its weapons.

Israeli army commanders said Israeli ground troops would not push deep into Lebanon, but instead aim to kill as many Hezbollah fighters as possible and push others away from the border.

"We are very much dealing with the villages and towns close to the border," Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan said. "Our aim is not to occupy the territory."

Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut on Tuesday for the first time in nearly two days after pausing during Rice's stopover in the Lebanese capital.

In a predawn raid, Israeli warplanes destroyed two neighboring houses in Nabatiyeh, which is 16 miles north of Bint Jbail and has been heavily bombarded in the past few days.

In one house, a man and his wife and their son were killed, said the couple's daughter, Shireen Hamza, who survived. Three men died in the other house, she said.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops conducting an operation near the town of Khan Younis on Tuesday shot and killed a Palestinian boy and wounded his father and sister, Palestinian hospital and security officials said. The army denied any involvement and said no Israeli forces were operating in the Khan Younis area.

Komati said 25 of Hezbollah's fighters had been killed as of Monday, and the group said two more died in ground fighting Tuesday - raising the previously announced toll of 11 to at least 27.

Israel says Hezbollah is greatly underreporting its casualties and says dozens have died. There was no way to accurately determine the number or often distinguish between civilians and fighters.

Along with its daily reports tracking major violence, the U.N. observers along the Israel-Lebanese border, known as the Blue Line, keep close track of individual incidents.

There were, for example, at least 73 acts of violence near the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon on July 24 alone, including 45 air raids and artillery strikes by Israel and 12 missile launches from Hezbollah.

Since Israel launched the Gaza offensive on June 28, more than 100 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, have been killed. In the conflict with Hezbollah, at least 422 people have been killed in Lebanon and 42 in Israel.

[Last modified July 26, 2006, 01:37:12]