From today's Daily Star, the online print version of the Lebanon paper.
Israel's campaign continues
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, July 14, 2006
Israel battered roads, mobile phone antennas and fuel tanks in Lebanon on Friday, further devastating its neighbor's economy after Hizbullah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers.
Israeli warplanes blasted the main Beirut-Damascus highway overnight, tightening an air, sea and land blockade of Lebanon, and bombed targets in a majority Shiite Muslim Beirut suburb, killing four people and wounding 40, security sources said.
The latest air strike brought the death toll to 55, almost all civilians, killed in Lebanon since Israel's campaign began.
Before the air strike, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in Beirut suburbs and some southern cities warning residents to stay away from Hizbullah offices, witnesses said, fuelling speculation that the group's charismatic leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, could be targeted.
"Nasrallah, I think, has pronounced sentence on himself but we will settle the account with him fully somewhere, sometime," Israeli Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On told Israel Radio.
The Israeli military claimed Hizbullah has fired more than 130 missiles into Israel over the last 48 hours, killing two civilians and wounding over 100. It said Hizbullah's main security compound in southern Beirut had been among targets hit on Friday. Reuters reporters said they could see no sign of damage at the site.
Israeli warplanes also attacked the Jiyyeh power plant, south of Beirut and fuel tanks at the capital's international airport, Air raids struck several mobile telephone relay stations in eastern Lebanon.
Israel on Thursday said that Hizbullah, Hamas, Syria and Iran belong to the "axis of terror and hate." Although they did not add Lebanon to their list, Israel holds Lebanon responsible for the actions of Hizbullah.
The violence in Lebanon coincided with an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip launched last month to try to retrieve another captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.
The crisis has helped drive world oil prices to record high 78 dollar a barrel and has shaken financial markets in Israel and Lebanon, and the rest of the Middle East.
Syria's ambassador to the United States said Washington should restrain Israel and push for renewed peace talks. The European Union and Russia have criticized Israel's strikes in Lebanon as disproportionate.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, when asked about the scale of the attacks on Lebanon, said his country was acting just as Russia did against the Chechens and the United States did against al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
The Lebanese government urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on its territory. The U.N. Security Council is planning to hold an urgent meeting on Friday to discuss the escalating violence in Lebanon and Israel. Arab foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on Saturday. - Agencies
Israel's campaign continues
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, July 14, 2006
Israel battered roads, mobile phone antennas and fuel tanks in Lebanon on Friday, further devastating its neighbor's economy after Hizbullah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers.
Israeli warplanes blasted the main Beirut-Damascus highway overnight, tightening an air, sea and land blockade of Lebanon, and bombed targets in a majority Shiite Muslim Beirut suburb, killing four people and wounding 40, security sources said.
The latest air strike brought the death toll to 55, almost all civilians, killed in Lebanon since Israel's campaign began.
Before the air strike, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in Beirut suburbs and some southern cities warning residents to stay away from Hizbullah offices, witnesses said, fuelling speculation that the group's charismatic leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, could be targeted.
"Nasrallah, I think, has pronounced sentence on himself but we will settle the account with him fully somewhere, sometime," Israeli Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On told Israel Radio.
The Israeli military claimed Hizbullah has fired more than 130 missiles into Israel over the last 48 hours, killing two civilians and wounding over 100. It said Hizbullah's main security compound in southern Beirut had been among targets hit on Friday. Reuters reporters said they could see no sign of damage at the site.
Israeli warplanes also attacked the Jiyyeh power plant, south of Beirut and fuel tanks at the capital's international airport, Air raids struck several mobile telephone relay stations in eastern Lebanon.
Israel on Thursday said that Hizbullah, Hamas, Syria and Iran belong to the "axis of terror and hate." Although they did not add Lebanon to their list, Israel holds Lebanon responsible for the actions of Hizbullah.
The violence in Lebanon coincided with an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip launched last month to try to retrieve another captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.
The crisis has helped drive world oil prices to record high 78 dollar a barrel and has shaken financial markets in Israel and Lebanon, and the rest of the Middle East.
Syria's ambassador to the United States said Washington should restrain Israel and push for renewed peace talks. The European Union and Russia have criticized Israel's strikes in Lebanon as disproportionate.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, when asked about the scale of the attacks on Lebanon, said his country was acting just as Russia did against the Chechens and the United States did against al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
The Lebanese government urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on its territory. The U.N. Security Council is planning to hold an urgent meeting on Friday to discuss the escalating violence in Lebanon and Israel. Arab foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on Saturday. - Agencies
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