Fight Centers on 2 Towns in Southern Lebanon
Skip to next paragraph Enlarge this Image Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters A wounded Israeli soldier being brought back from the front line inside Lebanon today. More Photos »
Multimedia
Photographs: Day 13
Turmoil in the Mideast
Go to Complete Coverage »Interactive Feature
Attack in Lebanon and Grief in Haifa
Interactive Graphic
Attacks, Day by Day
- More Multimedia: Israel | Middle East
Readers' Opinions
Forum: The Middle East
Enlarge this Image Pavel Wolberg/European Pressphoto Agency Israeli soldiers firing shells toward targets in Lebanon near the northen Israeli town of Kiriyat Shmona. More Photos >1604.cn
The fighting came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region, making an unannounced stop in Beirut, where she met Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. “Thank you for your courage and steadfastness,” she told Mr. Siniora, though few details emerged from their meeting. Ms. Rice then headed to Israel.
The main battle was on the outskirts of Bint Jbeil, about two miles across the border and considered an important Hezbollah stronghold. The town, whose name means “daughter of the mountain” in Arabic, is the largest population center in this corner of Lebanon. Israeli military officers said the offensive on the town began Sunday.
“We’re definitely in there, we control it, though there are still pockets of resistance,” said Capt. Mitch Pilcer of the Israeli Army’s Northern Command. However, other Israeli military officials were more cautious, saying the Israeli troops were still fighting their way into the town as of this evening.
Soldiers in a rear staging area near the Israeli border town of Avivim said they had encountered sustained fighting and faced land mines, artillery fire and anti-tank rockets.
英.语.文.摘
At least 20 Israeli soldiers were wounded today in Bint Jbail and surrounding areas, according to the Israeli military. It declined to say whether any had been killed, though Arab television networks reported that two Israelis had died.
The most dramatic events of the day turned around efforts to rescue the crew of a disabled tank, which had come under heavy fire. Some, if not all of the four crew members inside were wounded, according to soldiers who would not give their names because of Israeli Army policy that prohibits them from talking to reporters without authorization. They said one of the wounded was a battalion commander and others said one crew member had been killed. They were eventually recovered and the wounded sent hospitals in Israel, the soldiers said.
When asked what it was like in Lebanon, one member of an armed bulldozer crew who gave his first name as Naom said there had been an enormous amount of anti-tank missile fire. He said the large olive drab bulldozers that the Israeli Army uses to clear roads and demolish buildings drew heavy fire.
mmkey.com
“It’s not Lebanon, it’s Afghanistan,” he said.
At the Menara Kibbutz on a high ridge overlooking Lebanon, streams of smoke drifted from the town of Mes e Jbail from apparent Israeli shelling. Fires burned elsewhere across the gentle landscape, reminiscent of southern California.
Bint Jbail, also smoking, could be glimpsed in the distance. Below the kibbutz, on an outcropping, sat a United Nations observer outpost, built of cinderblocks and concrete blast walls. The U.N. observers, meant to monitor the border after Israel’s withdrawal, could do nothing but watch.
The push for Bint Jbeil comes after the Israeli forces moved into Maroun al-Ras, a smaller town closer to the border. It too is set on a hilltop, and Hezbollah has used it as a key base, according to the military.
While the Israeli forces are in Maroun al-Ras, they continued to come under fire from Hezbollah forces, beginning early in the morning, the military said. Maroun al-Ras is just a short distance acro MMKEY文摘
[1] [2] [3] 下一页