Khazen – Page 909

adminJuly 16, 2006UncategorisedComments are off for this post

AMMAN, Jordan (UPI) — Like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Arab response to the Lebanese-Israeli disproportionate military encounter further demonstrates the widening chasm between the Arabs and their regimes.The joint press conference by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Mohammad Shaali in Cairo following a meeting of Arab foreign ministers Saturday was testimony to this deep gap.

Egyptian and other Arab journalists angrily grilled the officials on what Arab governments are doing to stop Israel`s blockade and relentless air strikes against Lebanese civilian targets and infrastructure. At least 100 Lebanese have been killed and more than 250 others injured, most of them civilians, since Israel launched a military offensive against the country Wednesday following a cross-border operation by Lebanon`s Hezbollah guerillas, in which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two others captured.

Hezbollah rockets Sunday slammed into Israel`s port city of Haifa, killing nine Israelis, while four other civilians were killed in four days of Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Missiles hit Haifa, Israel warns south Lebanon residents

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Day 5, Beirut/Tel Aviv – Israel’s offensive against Lebanon and the Hezbollah guerrilla group threatened to escalate dramatically Sunday when a missile barrage slammed into the port city of Haifa and the Israeli military ordered all Lebanese civilians to leave southern Lebanon. Over 100 Lebanese have been killed, and around 280 wounded, in the approximately 220 attacks, most aerial, that Israel has launched since the offensive began on Wednesday.

Some 12 Israeli civilians have also been killed and between 325 to 340 people wounded by the more than 450 rockets Hezbollah has fired at the Jewish state. Fur Israeli sailors were also killed when an Iranian-produced c-802 missile fired from the Lebanese coast hit a missile boat off the coast of Lebanon Friday night.

Hezbollah’s deadliest rocket barrage so far took place Sunday morning, when around ten missiles slammed into Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. Eight people were killed, and dozens wounded, in the strike, which Hezbollah said was carried out by Raad 2 and Raad 3 missiles. Pls click READ MORE to view more pictures, and click on news archive to view pictures of day1 and day2.

Israel kills Lebanese civilians

adminJuly 15, 2006UncategorisedComments are off for this post

bbc news, An Israeli air raid has killed at least 17 Lebanese civilians who were fleeing southern border areas. Women and children were among those killed when the convoy was hit. "Bodies litter the road," an eyewitness said.

Israel has expanded its campaign launched after Hezbollah militants seized two Israeli soldiers. More than 70 Lebanese have been killed. Hezbollah has responded with rockets. Several have hit the town of Tiberias in the deepest such attack in Israel. Three Israeli sailors are missing after their ship was hit by a Hezbollah missile on Friday. The body of a fourth was found, according to Israeli media.

Israel pounds Lebanon

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Day 4, By Alistair Lyon, BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israeli air strikes killed at least 27 civilians on Saturday, pounding Lebanon for a fourth straight day to punish it for letting Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbollah fighters threaten northern Israel. President Bush said Syria should persuade Hizbollah to stop cross-border attacks from Lebanon’s mainly Shi’ite Muslim south.

An Israeli missile wrecked a van near the southern port of Tire, killing 15 passengers and wounding six, police said. The van was carrying families fleeing the village of Marwaheen after Israeli loudspeaker warnings to leave their homes. Israeli aircraft also bombed a Hizbollah office in southern Beirut’s Haret Hreik district, and attacked roads, bridges and petrol stations in north, east and south Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and wounding 32, security sources said.

Israel’s campaign, launched after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight on Wednesday, has killed 93 people, all but two civilians, and paralyzed Lebanon’s economy. It aims not just to force Hizbollah to free the soldiers, but to destroy its ability to launch rocket attacks on northern Israel, where four civilians have been killed this week. Israel’s aerial assault on Lebanon has drawn mounting world criticism but the White House has said President Bush would not press Israel to halt its military operation. To view more pictures pls click READ MORE, or to view pictures of 1st day and 2nd day pls click NEWS ARCHIVE

Lebanon’s tourism trade in ruins

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By Anna Marie Blight, After years of civil war, Lebanon has re-invented itself as one of the hippest and most popular holiday destinations in the Middle East, with Beirut having the region’s liveliest nightlife.But 48 hours of attack by air and sea have threatened the livelihoods of the many residents reliant on tourism. Strikes on Beirut’s Rafiq Hariri International Airport forced its closure on Thursday and several flights were diverted to Larnaca in Cyprus.

Lebanon’s only international airport was often the scene of conflict in the past, including the hijacking in 1985 of a TWA passenger jet and the subsequent murder of a US navy diver by fighters loyal to Hezbollah.But it has since been renovated and reinvented as a hub for tourism and commerce.However, with further bombs hitting the airport on Friday, several airlines, including Qatar Airways and Gulf Air, have suspended flights to and from Beirut. Gulf Air operates 12 flights a week between Bahrain and Beirut, and a spokesperson said the suspension would continue indefinitely.

Jad Tohme works at the airport and lives in the nearby village of Kfarchima. He was about to leave for work when the first bombs landed on the runway.
"My company has told me they would call me when the airport opens and I can return to work, but it’s not looking very likely," he said. "The airport closure means that it has lost a lot of money."

Chirac says Israel wants to ‘destroy Lebanon’

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President Chirac accused Israel today of wanting to "destroy Lebanon" as the United Nations sent a team of senior diplomats to the region to tackle the crisis caused by Hezbollah’s abduction of two Israeli soldiers.

So far Israel has ignored international concerns about its widespread military offensive in Lebanon and also escaped a UN Security Council motion calling for it to halt its operations in Gaza last night when a draft resolution was vetoed as "unbalanced" by the United States. Israel stepped up its actions in Lebanon today, hitting roads, bridges, fuel supplies and once again attacking Beirut airport to enforce a blockade of the country. Around 60 Lebanese have been killed since the violence flared on Wednesday after a cross-border raid by Hezbollah in which the two soldiers were captured.

M Chirac used his traditional Bastille Day live television interview to criticise the Israeli offensive. "One may well ask if there isn

Lebanon crisis fires Mid-East press

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Report in Lebanon’s Daily Star

Hundreds of Lebanese nationals and foreigners crowded into Beirut’s bus depot Friday and bid for the last remaining seats on taxis and buses heading for the Syrian border as Israel intensified its air campaign against the country’s infrastructure, leaving the main highway to Syria impassable.

Families camped in the filthy underpass of the Charles Helou terminal amid piles of suitcases, appliances, and other hastily collected belongings. A group of Syrian workers holding $14 bus tickets shoved each other as they fought their way onto one crowded vehicle. The men in front tried to squeeze their arms into the closing doors as the driver looked on helplessly…

Meanwhile, lost-looking Westerners and wealthy Gulf tourists were trying to haggle with the few available cab drivers left in the station and willing to make the now arduous journey from Beirut to Masnaa. Cabbies charged upward of $150 per person for the four-to-six-hour trip, which used to cost $10 and take about two hours on the Damascus Highway before it was cut by Israeli bombs…

Israel official: Iran helping Hezbollah

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JERUSALEM – A missile fired by Hezbollah, not an unmanned drone laden with explosives, damaged an Israeli warship off Lebanon, the army said Saturday. Iranian troops helped fire the missile, a senior intelligence official said. One sailor was killed and three were missing.The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said about 100 Iranian soldiers are in Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102 at the ship late Friday.

The attack alarmed Israel because initial information indicated the guerrillas had used a drone for the first time to attack Israeli forces.But the army’s investigation showed that Hezbollah had fired an Iranian-made missile at the vessel from the shores of Lebanon, said Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan."We can confirm that it was hit by an Iranian-made missile launched by Hezbollah. We see this as very profound fingerprint of Iranian involvement in Hezbollah," Nehushtan said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Ship struck off Beirut shore; four crewmembers missing

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DAY 3, BEIRUT, July 15 (Reuters) – Residents on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border braced on Saturday for a dramatic spike in violence after Hizbollah’s chief declared open war on Israel following its bombardment of his Beirut home and stronghold. "You wanted open war. We are going to open war," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a call to Hizbollah television.

"Look at it burn", he urged listeners, announcing an attack which set ablaze an Israeli warship that had earlier hit Beirut. Four Israeli troops were missing after the attack, which comes amid the bloodiest violence in Lebanon in over a decade, started by a cross-border attack on Wednesday in which Hizbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight. The violence in Lebanon coincided with an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip launched last month to try to retrieve another captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire. To view more pictures pls click READ MORE, to view pictures of the first day and second day pls click NEWS ARCHIVE

U.S. developing plans to evacuate citizens from Lebanon

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — The fighting that erupted in Lebanon has prompted the Pentagon to develop scenarios for evacuating American citizens, estimated to number around 25,000, military sources told CNN.

The rapid widening of the Mideast conflict this week has created great concern in the U.S. government, which doesn’t want Americans in Lebanon caught in the middle of a shooting war.

Such moves would start small, if they happen at all, the sources said. There has been no immediate request for help and no order to move any military personnel.

The State Department has set up a Middle East Task Force to coordinate policy and share information. Defense Department officials are part of the team to talk about any possible plans for American evacuation — a customary move, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.