Bombed trucks were 'carrying food'

FOUR lorries destroyed by Israeli air raids near the Christian town of Zahle in Lebanon's Bekaa valley yesterday were carrying nothing but medicines and food provisions, awitness says.

An Israeli military spokesman said the lorries had been carrying arms, munitions and explosives from Syria bound for Hezbollah fighters operating in the Bekaa valley.

An AFP journalist saw that one of the lorries was transporting medicine from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Another had been carrying vegetable oil, which spilled over the road, a third had a cargo of provisions and the fourth was empty.

Meanwhile, Turkish diplomats in Beirut said that a Turkish truck carrying cooking oil was also destroyed by Israeli fire in the Bekaa valley yesterday.

The UAE also denounced the bombarding of one of their humanitarian convoys.

The Israeli military carried out at least six attacks on lorries in the Zahle area, police said.


"Israel is clearly trying to disrupt daily life for the Lebanese, to isolate Bekaa from the rest of the country and to cut the supply lines to the Hezbollah in southern Lebanon," one police officer said.