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| Israel destroys Lebanon-Syria highway |
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Sunday, July 30, 2006
Hizbollah chief says Rice in Middle East to serve Israel; Tel Aviv rejects UN ceasefire appeal
BEIRUT: An Israeli air strike hit Lebanon’s main road to Damascus on Saturday just 1 km from the border with Syria, cutting the highway in both directions, witnesses and security sources said.
Three air strikes hit the road between Lebanese and Syrian immigration offices, but on the Lebanese side of the border, they said. There was no information on casualties. The Israeli military said it had struck the road to cut arms supply routes from Syria to Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. “The military attacked the road from Lebanon to Syria to prevent the smuggling of weapons,” an army spokeswoman said.
It was the first time that the main crossing between Lebanon and Syria was shut in the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas that began on June 12. The passage has been an escape route for tens of thousands of Lebanese who fled by land to Syria, after Israel bombed the runways at Beirut airport in the first days of fighting. It was also a gateway for humanitarian aid entering the country.
Israel on Saturday rejected a request by the United Nations for a three-day ceasefire in Lebanon to get in supplies and allow civilians to leave the war zone.
Israeli forces pulled out of the Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil on Saturday but might return and were still operating in surrounding areas, an Israeli military source and a top commander said.
Israeli troops had raided the Hizbollah stronghold, 4 km from the Israel-Lebanon border, earlier in the week as part of a major offensive against the guerrilla group, which has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in recent weeks. “There are no soldiers in Bint Jbeil, but it’s possible they will be back for pinpointed operations,” the Israeli military source said. Israeli Military Northern Command Chief Udi Adam said the army would continue to operate in southern Lebanon, saying: “We will continue to fight in the area of Bint Jbeil. We hold commanding positions in the areas.” Adam told reporters that troops killed 70 to 80 Hizbollah guerrillas in the territory over the past few days.
Israeli Sergeant Yoad Mor, who was wounded in the clashes in southern Lebanon, said troops found a large cache of weapons and munitions in Bint Jbeil.
Two Indian UN peacekeepers were wounded on Saturday in an Israeli air raid on their post in south Lebanon, a spokesman for the UN force said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel on Saturday for talks on ending the war. She has already visited both Israel and Lebanon once in the last week.
“Rice is returning to the region to try to impose her conditions on Lebanon again to serve her new Middle East project and to serve Israel,” Hizbollah’s Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
“The Israelis are ready to halt the aggression because they are afraid of the unknown,” Nasrallah said, adding “The one pushing for the continuation of the aggression is the US administration.”
Nasrallah threatened more rocket attacks on cities in central Israel and claimed Israel suffered a “serious defeat” in ground fighting around a Lebanese border town from which troops pulled back on Saturday after a week of heavy battles.
“The bombardment of Afula and its military base is the beginning ... Many cities in the centre (of Israel) will be targeted in the ‘beyond Haifa’ if the savage aggression continues on our country, people and villages,” Nasrallah said.
Twelve civilians, including a mother and her five children, were killed on Saturday in a new wave of Israeli air raids on Lebanon, police said.
The six members of the al-Kharakeh family were crushed to death under the rubble of their two-storey house which was destroyed in the Israeli raid close to the town of Nabatiyeh in central Lebanon.
The father, Adnan al-Kharakeh, an official with the Lebanese civil defence, was not killed in the raid. It was not clear if he had escaped or was not at home at the time of the strike.
Six civilians were also killed in an Israeli air raid on four houses in the border village of Ain Arab in southeast Lebanon, police said.
UN peacekeepers were heading to the village which has been cut off from the rest of the country by Israeli bombardment of the main road. The village is next to Ghajar, a disputed border village which is partly occupied by Israel.
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Three killed as Sh Rashid escapes attempt on life
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12 soldiers killed in South Waziristan
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Malik orders NUML closure as protest enters 5ht day
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Malik insists no Blackwater in Pakistan
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FBR gets list of properties rented out to foreigners
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Repealing of 17th Amendment
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Three suspects held in Mohmand
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No presence of Blackwater, DynCorp in Pakistan, NA body told
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Govt urged to take up water issue with India
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Avalanche kills 17 Indian soldiers in held Kashmir
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Taliban defiant as Afghans flee ahead of assault
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Plea to freeze foreign accounts
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Attack on Sh Rashid
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Indian forces to halt Kashmir rally outside UN office
HELD SRINAGAR: The held Kashmir authorities deployed thousands of police and troops on Monday to prevent a protest outside the UN office here over the recent killing of two teenage boys by Indian security force more |
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briefs...
20 die in Afghan floods, avalanches
KANDAHAR: Twenty people have died in floods and avalanches triggered by some of the heaviest rain and snow in Afghanistan for 50 years, an official said on Monday. At more |
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ISSN 1563-9479 
