A rchive Date
[ 08-08-2006 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Lebanon ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/08/08/1724257-ap.html
Battles rage in southern Lebanon
By ZEINA KARAM
August 8, 2006
BEIRUT (AP) - Battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas raged Tuesday across southern Lebanon as diplomats at the United Nations struggled to keep a peace plan from collapsing over Arab demands for an immediate Israeli withdrawal.
Military planners in Jerusalem, meanwhile, said they intend to push even deeper into Lebanon to target rocket sites.
Attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have come down to a step-by-step proposal backed by Washington and Lebanon’s insistence - supported by Arab countries - that nothing can happen before Israeli soldiers withdraw. Arab diplomats and UN Security Council members were to meet later Tuesday at the UN in New York to try to plan a compromise.
Lebanon has also put an offer on the table pledging up to 15,000 troops to a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon after Israel pulls back. The plan had added significance since it was backed by the two Hezbollah members on Lebanon’s cabinet - apparently showing a willingness for a pact by the Islamic militants and their main sponsors, Iran and Syria.
Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, on Tuesday called the proposed Lebanese troop deployment “interesting” and said Israel would favour leaving southern Lebanon once it considered that Hezbollah was no longer a direct threat.
But the rocky hills of southern Lebanon provided a different picture. Ground fighting continued to rage in villages and strategic ridges near the Israeli border, including sites used by Hezbollah for rocket barrages that have reached deep into Israel.
Fierce skirmishes broke out around the village of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has tried to control for weeks. An Israeli solider and 15 Hezbollah guerrillas were killed in the fighting, the army said. The militant group was not immediately available for comment.
Hezbollah TV also reported pre-dawn attacks on Israeli forces near the Mediterranean city of Naqoura, about four kilometres north of the border. The Israeli army said two reserve soldiers were killed and another two were wounded in southwestern Lebanon.
Israeli air strikes supported the ground fighting. A warplane fired two missiles into mountains at Birket Jabbour, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. Five more raids hit west of Baalbek. There was no word on casualties or damage.
Air strikes also hammered the southern towns of Bourj al-Shamali, Qana and Saddiqine, Voice of Lebanon radio reported. Rescuers said they retrieved one body after an air strike in Rzoum.
Another person was pulled out alive after an Israeli bomb hit a school in Maaroub, about 11 km east of Tyre. The survivor told rescuers five more people were buried under the rubble, but officials were deciding whether it was safe to remain in the area to try to rescue them.
The clashes followed one of the bloodiest days of the four-week-long conflict. At least three Israeli soldiers and 49 Lebanese died Monday - including 10 in a rocket attack in a Beirut suburb just hours after Arab League foreign ministers wrapped up a crisis meeting that threw its full diplomatic weight behind Lebanon.
The group set a demand for the Security Council - a full Israeli withdrawal or no peace deal is possible. The message was given in a tearful address by Lebanon’s prime minister, Fuad Saniora, and carried to the United Nations by Arab League envoys.
Saniora’s government voted unanimously to send 15,000 troops to stand between Israel and Hezbollah should a ceasefire take hold and Israeli forces withdraw.
The move was an attempt to show that Lebanon has the will and ability to assert control over its south, where Hezbollah rules with near autonomy bolstered by channels of aid and weapons from Iran and Syria. Lebanon has avoided any attempt to implement a two-year-old UN resolution calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah, fearing it could touch off widespread unrest.
Saniora, speaking to Al-Arabiya television, praised Hezbollah’s resistance, but said it was time for Lebanon to “impose its full control, authority and presence” over the war-weary country.
“There will be no authority, no one in command, no weapons other than those of the Lebanese state,” he said.
Saniora also took a jab at Hezbollah’s sponsor, Syria, which ended a nearly three-decade military presence in Lebanon last year. “Syria should get used to the fact that Lebanon is an independent state,” he said, without mentioning Hezbollah’s other patron, Iran.
The original ceasefire proposal, drafted by the United States and France, demanded a “full cessation of hostilities” on both sides and a buffer zone in southern Lebanon patrolled by Lebanese forces and UN troops. But the plan did not specifically call for a withdrawal. Critics said it would give room for Israeli defensive operations.
France’s UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, promised Monday to take into account Lebanon’s stance. But he did not say whether France was prepared to add such language to the text.
Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft in response to amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab country on the 15-nation Security Council, and other members, diplomats said. A vote is not expected before Wednesday at the earliest.
The proposed changes include a call for Israeli forces to pull out of Lebanon once the fighting stops and hand over their positions to UN peacekeepers. Arab states also want the UN to take control of the disputed Chebaa Farms area, which Israel seized in 1967.
Qatar’s foreign minister, Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, warned of “a civil war in Lebanon” between Hezbollah and government forces if the Security Council does not make changes to the U.S.-French draft resolution. “This is what we don’t want to happen and Lebanon won’t bear it,” he said, speaking on the Al-Jazeera network.
In Texas, President George W. Bush said Monday that any ceasefire must prevent Hezbollah from strengthening its grip in southern Lebanon, asserting “it’s time to address root causes of problems.” He urged the United Nations to work quickly to approve the U.S.-French draft resolution.
Israel, meanwhile, sent mixed signals.
Olmert said the government was studying Lebanon’s pledge to contribute troops to a potential peacekeeping force.
But hours earlier, Defence Minister Amir Peretz outlined plans to drive deeper into Lebanon to try to destroy Hezbollah rocket batteries - which have kept up a near relentless barrage on northern Israel and forced people in some areas to only venture out of bomb shelters for supplies.
Besides Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal, Israel also is facing new threats.
On Monday, the Israeli air force shot down a Hezbollah drone for the first time, sending its wreckage plunging into the sea. Israeli media reported that the unmanned aircraft had the capacity to carry some 40 kilograms of explosives, nearly as much as the more powerful rockets Hezbollah has been firing into Israel.
Unlike the rockets, the drone has a guidance system to for accurate targeting.
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved
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