Israel strikes within 10 miles of Beirut
Prime minister says assaults over captured prisoners will be ‘very painful’
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 4:33 p.m. MT July 12, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes and gunboats struck a Palestinian guerrilla base south of Beirut late Wednesday, Lebanese security officials said.
The attack is the closest raid to the Lebanese capital since fighting erupted in southern Lebanon after guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers Wednesday.
Warplanes flew over the Naameh base in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean, about 10 miles south of Beirut. Gunboats sailed facing the position, and explosions rang out across the area.
The base is run by the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and was a frequent target of Israeli attacks in the past.
There was no immediate word on casualties at Naameh. Hezbollah said its guerrillas destroyed two Israeli tanks that attempted to cross the border into Lebanon on two different occasions Wednesday.
Kidnapping soldiers ‘act of war’
Israeli ground troops entered southern Lebanon on Wednesday to search for two soldiers captured earlier in the day by Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli government officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the soldiers’ capture “an act of war,” and his Cabinet prepared to approve more military action in Lebanon — a second front in the fight against Islamic militants by Israel, which already is waging an operation to free a captured soldier in the Gaza Strip. The Israel military said eight of its soldiers had been killed in the violence.
Meanwhile, Israel began calling up reserve troops on Wednesday, signaling a large-scale campaign to retrieve the two soldiers, Israel’s Channel 10 television said. The report added that a reserve infantry division had been mobilized and was expected to be sent to Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
The Israeli army said three soldiers were killed in the initial Lebanon raid, and four others were killed when their tank went over a land mine in southern Lebanon.
Olmert said he held the Lebanese government responsible for the two soldiers’ safety, vowing that the Israeli response “will be restrained, but very, very, very painful.”
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said he will not release the captives except as part of a prisoner swap. He said the two soldiers were “in a safe and very far place.”
“No military operation will return them,” he told a news conference in Beirut. “The prisoners will not be returned except through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade.”
Striking deep
Israeli jets struck deep into southern Lebanon, blasting bridges and Hezbollah positions and killing two civilians, the Lebanese officials said.
Residents of Israeli towns on the border with Lebanon were ordered to seek cover in underground bomb shelters.
The Israeli stock market plunged on word that two more soldiers were captured and that Israel was getting entangled in a second front against Lebanese guerrillas. The exchange’s TA-25 blue chip index sank as much as 4.9 percent in exceptionally heavy trading. It rose slightly in afternoon trading to close down 4.2 percent.
The United States, U.N., European Union, France and Germany expressed deep concern about the fighting. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the immediate release of kidnapped Israeli soldiers and condemned Israel’s retaliation in southern Lebanon.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Hezbollah action went against the interest of the Lebanese people, and that Syria has a “special responsibility” to resolve the crisis.
“All sides must act with restraint to resolve this incident peacefully and to protect innocent life and civilian infrastructure,” she said ahead of meetings in Paris.
The White House, which also condemned the attacks, blamed Syria and Iran for the attacks.
“We call for immediate and unconditional release of the two soldiers,” said Frederick Jones, spokesman with the White House National Security Council. “We also hold Syria and Iran, which directly support Hezbollah, responsible for this attack and for the ensuing violence.”Hamas: Hezbollah’s actions ‘heroic’
The Palestinian group Hamas welcomed on Wednesday the operation in which the Lebanese guerrilla movement Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, saying it would help a campaign to free 1,000 Palestinians.
"This is a heroic operation carried out against military targets and so it is a legitimate operation, especially as it took place in occupied Lebanese territory," Hamas political bureau member Mohammad Nazzal told Reuters.
"Any military operation that targets the occupation serves the Palestinian people and Arab causes," he said in an interview in Cairo, where he came to reassure the Egyptian government that Hamas wants Egyptian mediation with Israel to resume on a deal including freedom for an Israeli soldier held in Gaza. "We think this operation will serve ... the issue of the prisoners," he added.
A Hamas leader said they had no prior knowledge of the Hezbollah operation and it was “natural” for the groups to work together against Israel.
He added it was too early to decide whether the two separate organisations would coordinate their demands that Israel release Palestinian and Arab prisoners, he said.
Israel, however, appeared determined to win freedom for its troops with a show of force.
Turning back the clock
Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz warned the Lebanese government that the Israeli military will target infrastructure and “turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years,” if the soldiers were not returned, Israeli TV reported.
Israeli troops crossed into a southwestern sector of Lebanon, across the border from where the soldiers were seized, trying to keep their captors from moving them deeper into Lebanon, Israeli security officials said.
Israeli warplanes and gunboats blasted bridges and Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon, killing two civilians, the Lebanese security officials said.
The Israeli jets made their deepest foray in an afternoon strike on a road in the Zahrani region along the Mediterranean coast — about halfway between the border and the capital of Beirut. Anti-aircraft guns opened fire on jets flying over the coastal city of Sidon.
The Arab League planned an urgent meeting on the crisis Thursday amid “fears of widening of tension and possible Israeli strike against Syria,” which backs Hezbollah, a senior league official in Cairo said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa blamed Israel for the escalating violence in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and denied his country had a role in either abduction.
“It’s up to the resistance — both the Lebanese and the Palestinian — to decide what they are doing and why are they fighting,” he told reporters in Damascus.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, visiting Cairo, said the capture of the two Israeli soldiers was “a very dangerous escalation” that “puts at risk all the effort that’s being put forth by many to find a solution to the current situation.”
Jubilation in south Beirut
Jubilant residents of south Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, and Palestinians in the Ein el-Hilwa refugee camp fired guns in the air and set off firecrackers in celebration after the capture of the Israeli soldiers was announced.
Hezbollah also called for major "celebration rallies" to be held in Lebanon on Thursday and had started to organize them, NBC News' Richard Engel reported. In the past, similar celebrations have attracted tens of thousands, or even several hundred thousand people.
Hezbollah sources also said the “Palestinians are very happy,” clearly showing Hezbollah’s solidarity with Hamas.
Hezbollah supporters were seen setting off fire crackers and distributing sweets in the streets of Beirut. Similar scenes were reported across Lebanon.
The top U.N. official in Lebanon, Geir Pedersen, met with Lebanon’s prime minister and denounced Hezbollah’s incursion across the border into northern Israel, known as the Blue Line.
“Hezbollah’s action escalates the already tense situation along the Blue Line and is an act of very dangerous proportions,” he said in a statement.
Prisoner swap sought?
Elsewhere, Israeli troops killed a Hezbollah guerrilla as he tried to infiltrate a military base in northern Israel. The army said Hezbollah also fired rockets toward the Israeli border. There were no reports of injuries.
Hezbollah’s military arm said its fighters captured two Israeli soldiers “on the border with occupied Palestine, fulfilling the promise to liberate its prisoners” held by Israel.
Hamas-linked militants have demanded the release of at least some of the estimated 9,000 prisoners held by Israel in exchange for Shalit’s freedom. Israel has carried out several prisoner swaps with Hezbollah in the past to free captured Israelis.
Israel occupied a small strip of southern Lebanon for 18 years before withdrawing in 2000 amid public complaints in Israel. Hezbollah fighters have controlled the Lebanese side of the border with Israel since then. Israel and Hezbollah have been clashing for two decades and still fight over a small sliver of border territory — Chebaa Farms.
Lebanon is under U.N. and U.S. pressure to disarm the Shiite guerrilla group and move its own military into the south, but the government has refused to do so, calling Hezbollah a legitimate resistance group.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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