Tweet
Israel gets hit with over 100 bombs and the world is calling for Israel to be civil and to use restraint!
I say it's time to turn the dogs loose with the support of the United States.
Please read:
I say it's time to turn the dogs loose with the support of the United States.
Please read:
MSNBC.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel destroys Hezbollah headquarters
Offensive against infrastructure continues, Hezbollah leader unharmed
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 12:36 a.m. CT July 14, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Israeli air strike destroyed a main Hezbollah office in Beirut’s southern suburb as Israel tightened its seal on Lebanon Friday.
The Israeli army blasted the Lebanon’s air and road links to the outside world and bringing its offensive to the capital to punish Hezbollah — and with it, the country — for the capture of two Israeli soldiers.
Warplanes again smashed runways at Beirut's airport with hours of airstrikes, trying to render it unusable, and destroyed mountain bridges on the main highway to Syria. Warships blockaded Lebanon's ports for a second day.
Smoke drifted over the capital after strikes exploded fuel tanks at one of Beirut's two main power stations, gradually escalating the damage to Lebanon's key infrastructure. Apartment buildings were shattered by strikes in south Beirut.
Hezbollah said the home of its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, were destroyed by an Israeli airstrike but that he and his family were safe. The Israeli army chief said the military operation in central Beirut did not target Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
Death toll rises
Lebanese guerrillas responded by firing a barrage of at least 50 Katyusha rockets throughout the day, hitting more than a dozen communities across northern Israel.
The death toll in three days of fighting rose to 73 killed in Lebanon — almost all civilians, including five killed in strikes Friday — and 12 in Israel, including a mother and daughter killed in a rocket attack. The violence sent shock waves through a region already traumatized by the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.
Israel's strikes on the airport and roads and naval blockade all but cut off Lebanon from the world, while hits on infrastructure aimed to exact a price from its government for allowing Hezbollah to operate freely in the south.
At the same time, strikes on Hezbollah — including ones targeting its leadership in south Beirut — aimed to pressure the Shiite Muslim guerrillas to release the Israeli soldiers captured Wednesday and push the militants away from Israel's northern border.
President Bush, in Russia for the G-8 summit, spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, and "reiterated his position" that the Israeli attacks should limit any impact on civilians, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting requested by Lebanon, special envoy Nouhad Mahmoud warned that Israeli attacks "will not resolve the problem, but will further complicate it." Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said Israel had no choice but to react to the "absolutely unprovoked attack" by Hezbollah.
Diplomatic efforts
Meantime, the United States appeared to be starting diplomatic efforts to rein in the crisis on the third day of Israel's massive assault on Lebanon, sparked by the Hezbollah capture of two Israeli soldiers.
Lebanon's Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said President Bush promised to pressure Israel “to limit damage to Lebanon ... and to spare civilians and innocent people from harm,” according to a statement from Saniora’s office.
In Lebanon, 73 people have been killed in Israel's bombardment, mostly Lebanese civilians, including three who died in south Beirut early Friday, police said. On the Israeli side, eight soldiers have died and two civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets.
Israel's offensive had several goals: to pressure Hezbollah to release the Israeli soldiers, to push the guerrilla group away from Israel's northern border and to exact a price from Lebanon's government for allowing Hezbollah to operate freely in the south.
The Lebanese government has asked the U.N. Security Council to demand a cease-fire. Israel says it holds the government responsible for Hezbollah's actions, but Saniora's Cabinet has insisted it had no prior knowledge of the raid and that it did not condone it.
Fears of wider war
The sudden burst of violence sent shock waves through a region already traumatized by Iraq and the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. It shattered the relative calm in Lebanon that followed Israel’s pullout from its occupied zone in south Lebanon in 2000 and the withdrawal of Syrian forces last year.
Fears mounted among Arab and European governments that violence in Lebanon could spiral out of control.
"We consider the situation to be very bad and there is the continuing possibility that it could worsen; that the conflict could expand, especially to Syria," said Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja of Finland, whose country now holds the EU presidency.
Syria supports Hezbollah and plays host to Hamas’ political leader Khaled Mashaal.
Also Friday, Jordan's King Abdullah II met in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a hastily-called meeting to discuss the escalating violence.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said any Israeli attack against Syria would be an aggression on the whole Islamic world and warned of a harsh reaction, the official Iranian news agency reported Friday.
The agency said Ahmadinejad made the comments in a telephone call to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Beirut airport runways hit
Throughout Friday morning, Israeli fighter-bombers pounded runways at Beirut's airport for a second day, apparently trying to ensure it was shut down after the Lebanese national carrier, Middle East Airlines, managed to evacuate its last five planes to Amman despite earlier strikes. One rocket hit close to the terminal building.
Another barrage hit fuel tanks at one of Beirut's two main power stations. Some parts of the capital were already seeing electricity outages before the strike, which was likely to worsen the power shortages.
For the first time in the assault, strikes targeted neighborhoods in south Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah's leadership. Warplanes rained missiles on roads in the capital's suburbs, knocking down an overpass and damaging another.
Earlier, Israeli planes dropped leaflets in Beirut suburbs and some southern cities urging residents to stay away from Hezbollah offices, fuelling speculation that the group’s charismatic leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, could be targeted.
Rocket strike deep inside Israel
In northern Israel, some 220,000 people hunkered down in bomb shelters even before the Haifa alert Friday amid Hezbollah's barrage of rockets.
At least 20 rockets hit the towns of Safad and Nahariya, where two people were killed a day earlier, as well as the town of Hatzor and the communities of Nurit and Ezen Menahem. At least 11 people were wounded, bringing the number of Israelis hurt in the rocket fire since Wednesday to more than 60.
The attacks raised to about 185 the number of rockets that have hit northern Israel in the last 48 hours, including two that struck Haifa, said army spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal. The attack in Haifa, the deepest target Hezbollah has ever hit in Israel, was likely to increase the sense of public insecurity in Israel and pressure Israeli forces to step up their offensive in Lebanon.
In Lebanon, Israeli warplanes blasted the highway between Beirut and Damascus — Lebanon's main land link to the outside world — forcing motorists to take mountain side roads to the Syrian capital. Warships also shelled the coastal highway north of Sidon, slowing down traffic considerably but not actually cutting the road, witnesses reported.
‘A dangerous game’
Israeli planes also hit transmission antennas for local TV stations in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold. Anwar Raja of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command said the planes struck the communications towers, but did not hit the guerrillas' base at Qousaya.
The Israeli offensive was causing political waves in Lebanon, with some anti-Syrian politicians accusing Hezbollah of acting unilaterally and dragging the country into a costly confrontation with Israel.
"Hezbollah is playing a dangerous game that exceeds the border of Lebanon," Druse leader Walid Jumblatt said in comments published Friday.
But Jumblatt, a leading anti-Syrian figure, also denounced the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, calling them completely unjustified.
Israeli officials said the campaign by the air force was the biggest since the Israeli invasion in 1982. The only comparable military action since then was the “Grapes of Wrath” offensive in 1996, also sparked by Hezbollah attacks.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13853565/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2006 MSNBC.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel destroys Hezbollah headquarters
Offensive against infrastructure continues, Hezbollah leader unharmed
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 12:36 a.m. CT July 14, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Israeli air strike destroyed a main Hezbollah office in Beirut’s southern suburb as Israel tightened its seal on Lebanon Friday.
The Israeli army blasted the Lebanon’s air and road links to the outside world and bringing its offensive to the capital to punish Hezbollah — and with it, the country — for the capture of two Israeli soldiers.
Warplanes again smashed runways at Beirut's airport with hours of airstrikes, trying to render it unusable, and destroyed mountain bridges on the main highway to Syria. Warships blockaded Lebanon's ports for a second day.
Smoke drifted over the capital after strikes exploded fuel tanks at one of Beirut's two main power stations, gradually escalating the damage to Lebanon's key infrastructure. Apartment buildings were shattered by strikes in south Beirut.
Hezbollah said the home of its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, were destroyed by an Israeli airstrike but that he and his family were safe. The Israeli army chief said the military operation in central Beirut did not target Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
Death toll rises
Lebanese guerrillas responded by firing a barrage of at least 50 Katyusha rockets throughout the day, hitting more than a dozen communities across northern Israel.
The death toll in three days of fighting rose to 73 killed in Lebanon — almost all civilians, including five killed in strikes Friday — and 12 in Israel, including a mother and daughter killed in a rocket attack. The violence sent shock waves through a region already traumatized by the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.
Israel's strikes on the airport and roads and naval blockade all but cut off Lebanon from the world, while hits on infrastructure aimed to exact a price from its government for allowing Hezbollah to operate freely in the south.
At the same time, strikes on Hezbollah — including ones targeting its leadership in south Beirut — aimed to pressure the Shiite Muslim guerrillas to release the Israeli soldiers captured Wednesday and push the militants away from Israel's northern border.
President Bush, in Russia for the G-8 summit, spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, and "reiterated his position" that the Israeli attacks should limit any impact on civilians, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting requested by Lebanon, special envoy Nouhad Mahmoud warned that Israeli attacks "will not resolve the problem, but will further complicate it." Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said Israel had no choice but to react to the "absolutely unprovoked attack" by Hezbollah.
Diplomatic efforts
Meantime, the United States appeared to be starting diplomatic efforts to rein in the crisis on the third day of Israel's massive assault on Lebanon, sparked by the Hezbollah capture of two Israeli soldiers.
Lebanon's Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said President Bush promised to pressure Israel “to limit damage to Lebanon ... and to spare civilians and innocent people from harm,” according to a statement from Saniora’s office.
In Lebanon, 73 people have been killed in Israel's bombardment, mostly Lebanese civilians, including three who died in south Beirut early Friday, police said. On the Israeli side, eight soldiers have died and two civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets.
Israel's offensive had several goals: to pressure Hezbollah to release the Israeli soldiers, to push the guerrilla group away from Israel's northern border and to exact a price from Lebanon's government for allowing Hezbollah to operate freely in the south.
The Lebanese government has asked the U.N. Security Council to demand a cease-fire. Israel says it holds the government responsible for Hezbollah's actions, but Saniora's Cabinet has insisted it had no prior knowledge of the raid and that it did not condone it.
Fears of wider war
The sudden burst of violence sent shock waves through a region already traumatized by Iraq and the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. It shattered the relative calm in Lebanon that followed Israel’s pullout from its occupied zone in south Lebanon in 2000 and the withdrawal of Syrian forces last year.
Fears mounted among Arab and European governments that violence in Lebanon could spiral out of control.
"We consider the situation to be very bad and there is the continuing possibility that it could worsen; that the conflict could expand, especially to Syria," said Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja of Finland, whose country now holds the EU presidency.
Syria supports Hezbollah and plays host to Hamas’ political leader Khaled Mashaal.
Also Friday, Jordan's King Abdullah II met in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a hastily-called meeting to discuss the escalating violence.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said any Israeli attack against Syria would be an aggression on the whole Islamic world and warned of a harsh reaction, the official Iranian news agency reported Friday.
The agency said Ahmadinejad made the comments in a telephone call to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Beirut airport runways hit
Throughout Friday morning, Israeli fighter-bombers pounded runways at Beirut's airport for a second day, apparently trying to ensure it was shut down after the Lebanese national carrier, Middle East Airlines, managed to evacuate its last five planes to Amman despite earlier strikes. One rocket hit close to the terminal building.
Another barrage hit fuel tanks at one of Beirut's two main power stations. Some parts of the capital were already seeing electricity outages before the strike, which was likely to worsen the power shortages.
For the first time in the assault, strikes targeted neighborhoods in south Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah's leadership. Warplanes rained missiles on roads in the capital's suburbs, knocking down an overpass and damaging another.
Earlier, Israeli planes dropped leaflets in Beirut suburbs and some southern cities urging residents to stay away from Hezbollah offices, fuelling speculation that the group’s charismatic leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, could be targeted.
Rocket strike deep inside Israel
In northern Israel, some 220,000 people hunkered down in bomb shelters even before the Haifa alert Friday amid Hezbollah's barrage of rockets.
At least 20 rockets hit the towns of Safad and Nahariya, where two people were killed a day earlier, as well as the town of Hatzor and the communities of Nurit and Ezen Menahem. At least 11 people were wounded, bringing the number of Israelis hurt in the rocket fire since Wednesday to more than 60.
The attacks raised to about 185 the number of rockets that have hit northern Israel in the last 48 hours, including two that struck Haifa, said army spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal. The attack in Haifa, the deepest target Hezbollah has ever hit in Israel, was likely to increase the sense of public insecurity in Israel and pressure Israeli forces to step up their offensive in Lebanon.
In Lebanon, Israeli warplanes blasted the highway between Beirut and Damascus — Lebanon's main land link to the outside world — forcing motorists to take mountain side roads to the Syrian capital. Warships also shelled the coastal highway north of Sidon, slowing down traffic considerably but not actually cutting the road, witnesses reported.
‘A dangerous game’
Israeli planes also hit transmission antennas for local TV stations in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold. Anwar Raja of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command said the planes struck the communications towers, but did not hit the guerrillas' base at Qousaya.
The Israeli offensive was causing political waves in Lebanon, with some anti-Syrian politicians accusing Hezbollah of acting unilaterally and dragging the country into a costly confrontation with Israel.
"Hezbollah is playing a dangerous game that exceeds the border of Lebanon," Druse leader Walid Jumblatt said in comments published Friday.
But Jumblatt, a leading anti-Syrian figure, also denounced the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, calling them completely unjustified.
Israeli officials said the campaign by the air force was the biggest since the Israeli invasion in 1982. The only comparable military action since then was the “Grapes of Wrath” offensive in 1996, also sparked by Hezbollah attacks.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13853565/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2006 MSNBC.com
Comment