War in The Middle East

[Armenian]

Re: War in The Middle East

14 Israeli troops killed by Hezbollah

By SAM F. GHATTAS Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli troops as they battled for a key hilltop town in southern Lebanon for a fourth day Wednesday, with as many as 14 soldiers reported killed. Lebanese officials, meanwhile, confirmed that four U.N. observers were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their post Tuesday night.

U.S., European and Arab officials holding crisis talks in Rome on Lebanon failed to agree on details for a cease-fire to end the fighting. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israeli lawmakers that he wants to establish a strip of a little more than a mile wide in south Lebanon that will be free of Hezbollah guerrillas, giving the dimensions of a new "security zone" for the first time.

"We want a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) space from the border in which it will not be possible to fire rockets toward soldiers and civilians' houses and in which there will not be contact with military border patrols," Olmert told parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, according to participants at the closed meeting. Israeli soldiers patrolled a "security zone" during Israel's 18-year occupation of south Lebanon, but Olmert indicated the new buffer zone would be different. "We do not have any intention of returning to the security zone but want to create an area where there will be no Hezbollah," he was quoted as saying.

The Israeli public currently overwhelmingly supports the army's broad offensive in Lebanon, but is not likely to support any reoccupation. Israel has faced fiercer resistance than expected as it advances across the border in its two-week campaign against the Islamic militant group. Wednesday's fighting broke out when Israeli forces tried to advance inside Bint Jbail, a town that has symbolic importance to Hezbollah as one of the centers of resistance to the 1982-2000 Israeli occupation.

There were conflicting reports about the casualty toll in the fourth day of fighting for Bint Jbail, which holds the largest Shiite Muslim community in the border area. Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based satellite TV channel, said 14 Israeli soldiers had been killed. Hezbollah's chief spokesman Hussein Rahhal said of the battle: "What I can tell you is that 13 Israelis have been burned alive in their tanks on our land." If confirmed, it would be the largest death toll suffered by the Israeli military in a single attack since the offensive began two weeks ago.

The Israeli military said there were 20 Israeli casualties, but it would not say if any soldiers had been killed. Israeli TV reported 13 casualties, but was not more specific. Israel Radio said "at least 10 Israeli soldiers had been hit" in heavy fighting against 200 Hezbollah guerrillas in the town. The radio did not specify if any Israelis were killed. The Israeli army said several Hezbollah fighters had taken cover in a local mosque.

A senior Hezbollah official, Mahmoud Komati, told The Associated Press that Israeli forces had managed to seize a few points inside Bint Jbail, but had not yet taken the town center. Hezbollah said "violent confrontations" were taking place between its fighters and Israeli forces attempting to advance toward a hospital in Bint Jbail.

Fighting also has been heavy for days around the border towns of Aitaroun and Maroun al-Ras, where Israeli forces are trying to eliminate the guerrillas who have been firing rockets into Israel. The area controls the high ground in the central sector of the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Israeli army commanders also have presented a more limited agenda, saying Israeli ground troops would not push deep into Lebanon and the objective is to kill as many Hezbollah fighters as possible and push others away from the border. After the Rome meeting heard a dramatic appeal from Lebanon's prime minister to "stop the killing," it failed to agree on a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

"Participants expressed their determination to work immediately to reach, with utmost urgency, a cease-fire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities. The cease-fire must be lasting, permanent and sustainable," said Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema at the close of the meeting.

It did, however, agree on the need to deploy an international force under the United Nations to southern Lebanon. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the solution to the crisis should involve Iran and Syria. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington favors urgently ending the fighting but that there cannot be a return to a status quo of political uncertainty and instability in Lebanon.

The Israeli bombardment of a U.N. observation post in the southern town of Khiam provoked a sharp exchange between the world body and Israel. Lebanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said rescue workers were trying to extricate the fourth body from the wrecked building. Annan said he was shocked by the "apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. observer post in southern Lebanon."

Olmert called Annan to express his "deep regret" and say the U.N. post was hit inadvertently. He pledged to carry out a "thorough investigation" and would share the results with Annan, according to a statement from his office. He expressed dismay over Annan's initial comments that the airstrike was "apparently deliberate." "It's inconceivable for the U.N. to define an error as an apparently deliberate action," Olmert's statement said.

One of the dead was identified as Chinese U.N. observer Du Zhaoyu, the Xinhua News Agency reported. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Israel's ambassador to Beijing was summoned and asked to convey China's request that Israel fully investigate the incident and issue an apology to the victim's relatives.

"We are deeply shocked by this incident and strongly condemn it," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in the statement. The other three U.N. observers were from Austria, Canada and Finland. A new volley of Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel on Tuesday, killing a teenage girl. Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, issued a taped television message saying guerrillas would start firing rockets deeper into Israel.

As the Israeli incursion continued, the senior Hezbollah leader said the guerrillas had not expected such an onslaught when they killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two others during a cross-border raid on July 12. "The truth is _ let me say this clearly _ we didn't even expect (this) response ... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," Komati told the AP.

The international community also stepped up efforts to get aid to those stranded in the troubled south. A U.N. convoy of 10 trucks carrying food, medicine, sanitation and hygiene supplies left Beirut for the port city of Tyre. The United Nations said it was the first such effort to distribute aid to the south via "safe humanitarian corridors."

A Jordanian military plane landed at Beirut airport Wednesday to evacuate wounded Lebanese, airport officials said. The aircraft, which was the first to land since the airport was closed July 13 after Israeli airstrikes on its runways, also brought a field hospital. Two more planes were bringing medical equipment and military engineers to help repair the airport.

The European Commission also said it was sending an additional $12.6 million in humanitarian aid to Lebanon and $13.9 million to help cover the costs of travel home for foreigners from poor countries fleeing the fighting.

Link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...d/4073123.html

[skhara]

Re: War in The Middle East

Here is an article supporting Annon's info about Zionist early support for Hamas:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10456.htm

[Armenian]

Re: War in The Middle East

This criminal attack on the UN by Israel reminds me of the criminal attack on the USS Liberty some forty years ago: http://www.washington-report.org/bac...93/9306019.htm

Israel 'ignored UN bomb warnings'

Kofi Annan has called for an investigation into the bombing

Israel ignored repeated warnings it was shelling close to United Nations observers in southern Lebanon before an Israeli bomb killed four for them, the Irish foreign ministry has said. The ministry said on Wednesday a senior Irish army officer had called Israeli military liasion officers at least six times to warn them that Israeli munitions were landing close to UN installations in the region.

The peacekeepers were killed on Tuesday night when an aerial bomb struck a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) building in Khiam, southern Lebanon, an UNIFIL spokesman said. "On six separate occasions he [the officer] was in contact with the Israelis to warn them that their bombardment was endangering the lives of UN staff in South Lebanon," a department of foreign affairs spokesman said.

The dead were Canadian, Finnish, Austrian and Chinese nationals. Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, has condemned Israel, saying he was shocked by the "apparently deliberate targeting" of the post, and calling for it to investigate the incident. Several international governments and organisations also expressed their anger at the bombing.

'Deep regrets'

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, expressed "deep regrets" earlier on Wednesday over the deaths in a telephone conversation with Annan, his office said, but the Israeli premier said it was "inconceivable" for the UN to think that the incident was deliberate.

Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, also said that Annan's comments were "premature and erroneous" for implying that Israel had deliberately targeted the observers. The US government on Wednesday defended Israel, saying that although the attack was "horrible" there was no indication that the post had been targeted.

Since clashes between Israel and Hezbollah fighters began two weeks ago, there have been several incidents of firing close to UN peacekeepers and observers, including direct hits on nine positions, a UN official told the Associated Press news agency.

UNIFIL has almost 2,000 peacekeepers and has been deployed in the southern Lebanon for almost 30 years, mainly providing protection and humanitarian assistance to the local population.

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...8434D68F39.htm

When you control the media and government of the world's most powerful nation, you can just about do anything you want.

Israeli Pilot Speaks Up

Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with former Congressman Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey about his role. According to this senior Israeli lead pilot, he recognized the Liberty as American immediately, so informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do so and returned to base, where he was arrested.

Later, a dual-citizen Israeli major told survivors that he was in an Israeli war room where he heard that pilot's radio report. The attacking pilots and everyone in the Israeli war room knew that they were attacking an American ship, the major said. He recanted the statement only after he received threatening phone calls from Israel.

The pilot's protests also were heard by radio monitors in the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. Then-U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dwight Porter has confirmed this. Porter told his story to syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak and offered to submit to further questioning by authorities. Unfortunately, no one in the U.S. government has any interest in hearing these first-person accounts of Israeli treachery.

Key members of the Lyndon Johnson administration have long agreed that this attack was no accident. Perhaps most outspoken is former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer. "I can never accept the claim that this was a mistaken attack," he insists.

Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk is equally outspoken, calling the attack deliberate in press and radio interviews. Similarly strong language comes from top leaders of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency (some of whose personnel were among the victims), National Security Council, and from presidential advisers such as Clark Clifford, Joseph Califano and Lucius Battle.

A top-secret analysis of Israel's excuse conducted by the Department of State found Israel's story to be untrue. Yet Israel and its defenders continue to stand by their claim that the attack was a "tragic accident" in which Israel mistook the most modern electronic surveillance vessel in the world for a rusted-out 40-year-old Egyptian horse transport.

Despite the evidence, no U.S. administration has ever found the courage to ever found the courage to defy the Israeli lobby by publicly demanding a proper accounting from Israel. http://www.washington-report.org/bac...93/9306019.htm

[skhara]

Re: War in The Middle East

This criminal attack on the UN by Israel reminds me of the criminal attack on the USS Liberty some forty years ago:

Same here.

[karoaper]

Re: War in The Middle East

Heard from a buddy, who had actually been to the post and knew some of the guys, that the entire UN post was obliterated. Fourteen munitions were dropped on it. Arriving ambulances and help was bombed too. Seems like the maniacs are bombing left and right and xxxx precautions, even if in some cases the generals are telling them to excersize caution. Imagine if such disregard is shown towards possible European troops, how inconcequential Lebanese civilian losses are.

[skhara]

Re: War in The Middle East

CNN reports xxxs are "wondering what happenned to the Golani brigade in Bint-Jebil".

And now they are clarifying what they mean by "control".

[Armenian]

Re: War in The Middle East

Heard from a buddy, who had actually been to the post and knew some of the guys, that the entire UN post was obliterated. Fourteen munitions were dropped on it. Arriving ambulances and help was bombed too. Seems like the maniacs are bombing left and right and xxxx precautions, even if in some cases the generals are telling them to excersize caution. Imagine if such disregard is shown towards possible European troops, how inconcequential Lebanese civilian losses are.

Becareful Karo, the administator here might ban you because you sound like an anti-Semite.

I'm glad Armenians are finally waking up to what Zionism is all about.

[Armenian]

Re: War in The Middle East

The Israeli version of the events today in south Lebanon

Nine IDF soldiers killed in bitter south Lebanon fighting



Nine Israel Defense Forces soldiers died Wednesday and 27 others were injured in the hardest day of fighting in southern Lebanon since the war began two weeks ago. Five of the injured soldiers are in serious condition. The IDF believes that Hezbollah lost 15 of its fighters in Wednesday's fighting.

Eight of the IDF dead - five soldiers and three officers - were from the Golani Brigade; they were killed in fighting in the town of Bint Jbail. The ninth soldier, a paratrooper, was killed last night in Maroun Ras. The IDF began its operation against Bint Jbail on Monday morning. By Tuesday evening, troops from the Golani and Paratroops Brigades had taken up positions on the outskirts of the town, and Golani soldiers had also entered some of the homes.

At approximately 5 A.M. Wednesday, Golani infantry entered Bint Jbail from the northeast and headed toward the center of town. The aim of the operation was to find and engage Hezbollah guerrillas and destroy their stores of arms. According to initial reports, the guerrillas managed to ambush the IDF forces as they approached several homes on the outskirts of the town. Many of the Golani casualties occurred during this initial encounter, which took place at very close range.

The initial battle raged for about an hour. During the next three hours, other platoons entered the area in an attempt to extricate the force that was pinned down. Hezbollah forces fired antitank missiles and threw grenades at the force it had caught in its ambush, and it also used mortars to attack the supporting IDF units.

A total of 22 soldiers suffered injuries, including two platoon commanders. Three of the casualties were seriously wounded, four were moderately hurt and 15 had light wounds. The evacuation of the injured was particularly difficult because of the heavy fire in the area.

The IDF's Northern Command was initially reluctant to deploy attack helicopters in the battle, due to concerns that Hezbollah might succeed in shooting down one of them. However, the delay in the evacuation of the wounded led to a decision to deploy the helicopters.

The evacuation, which was finally accomplished only six hours after the start of the battle, utilized four Blackhawk helicopters that landed two kilometers from the scene of the fighting. The soldiers carried their injured comrades on foot to the improvised landing strip.

While the operation was being carried out, Bint Jbail was subjected to heavy and sustained fire, and the helicopter landing area was covered in smoke in order to conceal the choppers' presence from Hezbollah snipers and missiles. The helicopters stayed on the ground no more than a minute each before evacuating the wounded to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.

The fighting in the town continued into the evening, and included aerial attacks on the center of the town by the Israel Air Force. Later in the evening, in the nearby town of Maroun Ras, Hezbollah guerrillas fired an antitank missile at a force of paratroopers, killing one and seriously wounding two others. Another paratrooper suffered moderate injuries and two others were lightly hurt. All were evacuated to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.

Major General Udi Adam, the GOC Northern Command, said Wednesday that "the soldiers displayed sangfroid, bravery and professionalism after they came under fire, and they succeeded in killing many terrorists. In the IDF, we estimate that at least 15 Hezbollah guerrillas were killed in the village. There are also assessments that put the number of casualties on the Lebanese side at 40 to 50 dead fighters."

Senior officers in the Northern Command said Wednesday night that at this stage, they have a very limited picture of what transpired. However, officers in the Golani and Paratroops Brigades charged that the IDF employed insufficient force before the soldiers were deployed to search the homes. They said that once the civilians had been told to leave the town, the army should have regarded Bint Jbail as a battlefield and destroyed any home where Hezbollah guerrillas were suspected of hiding.

They also charged that not enough aircraft were used to attack targets. The IDF's modus operandi in southern Lebanon in recent days has sparked great debate among all ranks of the army. Many field officers argue that insufficient forces are being deployed in the fighting and that the army is being ineffective against Katyusha rocket launchers.

[Armenian]

Re: War in The Middle East

Syrian version of the events today in south Lebanon

13 Israeli killed in Fierce Clashes

BEIRUT,( SANA) –

Death toll of Israeli soldiers reached at 13 during the continues battles raged between Lebanese resistance and occupation Israeli forces in southern Lebanon towns of Bint Jbeil, Maron al- Ras, and Aytron, Resistance sources Wednesday Said. Al jazeera Arab Television Station indicated that 12 Israeli soldiers wounded in the fighting.

Meanwhile Israeli military spokeswomen acknowledged that " 20 Israeli soldiers injured today in the battles with the Lebanese national resistance near Bint Jbeil town in the south of Lebanon." The Lebanese resistance shelled missiles at noon on a number of Zionist settlements in the north of occupied Palestine, while Israeli warplanes raided on Wadi al-Kaffor in Tyre area and Bar'axxxx and Shaqra towns exposed to Israeli artillery fire.

For his part , Lebanese MP Hasan Fadellulah stressed that fighting between Israeli troops and resistance was fierce, where the resistance is confronting the Israeli bids of incursion based on a wide range attempts based on a wide -range of destruction. While examining wounded at Government Beirut hospital ,Fadellulah underlined in a statement that "the enemy couldn't affect resistance's will of the Lebanese people who is committed to steadfastness choice. http://www.sana.org/eng/22/2006/07/26/51552.htm

[Davo88]

Re: War in The Middle East

Iranian Volunteers Set Off for Lebanon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601365.html

They surely won't be able to pass through the Turkish border.