Israel launches new air strikes on Beirut, ground forces fight with Hezbollah guerrillas

BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon - Israeli war planes renewed strikes against Beirut’s southern suburbs Thursday and an Israeli missile killed three in the border village of Taibeh, a day after the biggest and deepest rocket attacks yet from Hezbollah.

Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades _ or roughly 10,000 troops _ were in south Lebanon locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas, and the battle looked likely to be bitter and long.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said more than 900 people had been killed and 3,000 injured in the fighting, though did not say whether the new figure _ up from 548 confirmed dead _ included those missing.

More than 1 million people _ a quarter of Lebanon’s population _ had been displaced, he said, adding the fighting is taking an enormous toll on human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered our economy.”

Although diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have thus far faltered, diplomats said the United States and France were working on two UN resolutions to overcome the impasse.

The first resolution would call for an immediate cease-fire and lay out political principles for a long-term settlement of the dispute, while the second would deal with deploying an international force to secure the border between Lebanon and Israel and other long-term issues.

Diplomats said the key elements in that framework include halting the fighting, disarming Hezbollah, deploying peacekeepers and creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops.

The Israeli army said its soldiers had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon, as they try to carve out a seven-kilometer-wide (five-mile-wide) Hezbollah-free zone ahead of what it hopes will be a speedy deployment of a multinational force there.

Most of the villages are close to the Israel-Lebanon border; the one deepest inside Lebanon, Majdel Zoun, is about 6 kilometers (four miles) from the frontier. However, many tanks pushed even further north, controlling open areas from higher ground, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.

In heavy ground fighting, one Israeli soldier was killed and four wounded around the south Lebanon village of Ayt a-Shab, the Israeli military said. It claimed four Hezbollah fighters were killed and two wounded in fighting in the region, but Hezbollah did not immediately confirm the report.

Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television reported two Israeli soldiers had been reported in clashes in southern Lebanon in addition to four wounded, but Israel had no immediate public comment.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television reported guerrillas clashed with Israeli troops in Taibeh, less than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the border, destroying a tank and two bulldozers and injuring its crew members.

The Israeli army said a tank had been lightly hit in clashes but that there were no casualties or serious damage.

In Israeli airstrikes, Lebanese security officials said a missile crashed into the two-story house in Taibeh, killing a man, his wife and daughter.

An Associated Press reporter also saw two Israeli missiles slam into the side of a house in the south Lebanese village of Qleia, igniting a fire that sent a column of heavy black smoke up from the site.

Israeli artillery shells soared into nearby hills, sometimes as many as 15 a minute.

In the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, fighter jets struck an ambulance working for a local Muslim group, Lebanese security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the press. They also hit the village of Zarariyeh, about 10 kilometers away, destroying roads and some deserted houses there.

In the first air raids on the Lebanese capital in almost a week, witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim sector that has been repeatedly shelled by Israel since fighting began three weeks ago.

Lebanese television said the attacks targeted several buildings in a Hezbollah compound of Dahieh’s al-Ruweis neighborhood. The compound, which includes a center for religious teaching, has been attacked in earlier raids and sustained seizable damage.

Israeli warplanes also fired more than a dozen missiles at roads and suspected guerrilla hideouts in the southeastern town of Rashaya in morning attacks, Lebanese security officials said. They said the attacks were part of Israel’s strategy to destroy Lebanese infrastructure so that people would not travel from one village to the other.

Other strikes hit targets near Lebanon’s northern border with Syria overnight, Lebanese radio said. This was the second attack in the area in 24 hours, and a bridge linking the zone to the northern port of Tripoli was destroyed there Wednesday.

The new strikes came after Hezbollah scored its deepest hits on Israel yet with missiles landing in the West Bank and Beit Shean, about 42 miles (70 kilometers) into the country.

An Israeli-American man was killed as he fled for home by bicycle near a northern town, and another 21 were injured elsewhere across Israel as Hezbollah fired a record 210 rockets into the country on Wednesday.

Across northern Israel, forests and fields lay scorched from rocket fire.

An Israeli military inquiry on the bombing of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana that killed many civilians, mostly women and children, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks.

Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out,” a statement from the inquiry said.

While local Red Cross officials had put the death toll at 56 in the attack, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday there were 28 known dead from the attack and 13 others missing.

The prospect of a longer war already has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term peace deal.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country would stop its offensive only after a robust international peacekeeping force was in place in southern Lebanon, to protect Israel from border raids and rocket attack. He predicted the fighting would create new momentum” for Israel’s plan to separate from the Palestinians by pulling out of the West Bank.

Israel has not yet released the names of five men captured in a dawn raid Wednesday in Baalbek, near the Syrian border. Hezbollah claims the men were civilians, but Israel said they were guerrilla fighters, and Olmert suggested they may be high-ranking, saying they are tasty fishes.”

At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began three weeks ago, including 477 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing.

In all, 56 Israelis have died _ 37 soldiers as well as 19 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.