Beirut under siege, tension high........

[General Duke]

Beirut under siege as Israel attacks from air and sea

 

 

· Chris McGreal in Jerusalem

Friday July 14, 2006

The Guardian

 

 

Smoke rises from Beirut international airport after being hit by Israeli planes. Photograph: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

 

 

 

Israel laid siege to Lebanon yesterday bombing Beirut airport, blockading sea ports and declaring its northern neighbour's airspace closed to everything but its jets launching waves of attacks.

Hizbullah, the Lebanese militia group, responded by bombarding Israel with scores of rockets, some of which for the first time hit a major city - the port of Haifa about 20 miles from the border.

 

Israeli air force planes ranged freely across Lebanon, bombing villages, army bases, bridges and a television station as the Jewish state intensified its campaign to win the release of two soldiers captured by Hizbullah on the border on Wednesday.

 

The air raids also severed the main road between Beirut and the Syrian capital, Damascus. Israeli gunboats turned ships away from Lebanese ports and last night flames were billowing from fuel tanks after a second attack on the capital's crippled airport. At least 50 Lebanese were killed in the assault, including 17 members of two families.

 

Hizbullah's rocket attacks on Israeli towns and kibbutz killed a woman and sent families fleeing from their homes for bomb shelters or areas away from the border. No one was injured by two rockets that fell on Haifa, but they had an important psychological impact because Hizbullah has not been able to hit targets so deep into Israel before, nor such a large city.

 

As the violence escalated it appeared to polarise reaction, with the US and EU taking markedly different stances. George Bush said Israel had the right to defend itself, but cautioned against bringing down the Lebanese administration. "The concern here is that any activities by Israel to protect herself will weaken that government ... topple that government, and we have made that clear in our discussions," he said during a visit to Germany. "Having said all that, people need to protect themselves."

 

He also said that Syria needed to be held to account for supporting Hizbullah and Hamas.

 

But the EU said the sea and air blockade was unjustified and it deplored the "disproportionate" use of force and the loss of civilian life. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said he would dispatch a three-person team to the region to try to defuse the crisis. The Israel-Lebanon crisis, coupled with anxiety over the mounting confrontation over Iran's nuclear ambitions, drove the price of crude oil to a record of almost $77 a barrel yesterday.

 

Hizbullah is demanding the release of Arab security prisoners in Israeli jails in return for the two captured soldiers and a third soldier held in the Gaza Strip after he was snatched by Palestinian militias last month.

 

Israel dropped leaflets warning residents of a Beirut suburb where Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrullah, lives, to evacuate their homes. Its justice minister, Haim Ramon, suggested that the Hizbullah chief could be a target. "All those who plan the attacks, all those who allow such terror activities, are also a target," he told Israel radio. The Israeli military told a meeting of the government's security cabinet it also favoured attacking crucial infrastructure such as power plants. Israeli tanks were gathering on the border for what may be a wider ground operation.

 

An Israeli army spokesman, Erik Snider, said the blockade of Lebanon could go on for some time. "We're trying to isolate Lebanon to prevent attacks from Lebanon against Israeli soldiers and civilians," he said.

 

Israel said it feared the two captured soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26 - could be taken to Iran, and the blockade and attacks were aimed at making that more difficult. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said last night that Israel was "talking absurdities".

 

Lebanon appealed for an immediate ceasefire, saying it did not endorse the Hizbullah attacks. But Israel appeared determined to press ahead, saying it was responding to an "act of war" by the Lebanese government which contains members of Hizbullah.

 

Israel also kept up its campaign against Hamas in Gaza by blowing up the offices of the Palestinian foreign minister, Mahmoud al-Zahar. It launched an assault on the Gaza Strip nearly three weeks ago after a soldier, Gilad Shalit, was seized by Palestinian militias. At the UN security council last night, the US vetoed a resolution backed by Arab countries condemning Israel and calling on it to end its military offensive in Gaza. Britain abstained, calling the resolution unbalanced. But the UK's ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, said Israel should defend itself "in a way which does not escalate the situation".

[Xoogsade]

Exactly what you hope for to happen to Muqdisho and its residents. How pathetic.

[General Duke]

^^^Man you are foolish, nothing less. I have answered your clan accusations against my person many times before, but despite many response, you still try to picture me as a heathen against my own family.

 

You only attcak me because of my clan. You read an article about the Middle East and of such magnitude and all you remember is that duke belongs to that clan.. Pathetic indeed..

 

Now more on the story...

[General Duke]

Israel widens bombing campaign as Lebanese militia groups retaliate

 

By Donald Macintyre in Nahariya and Eric Silver in Jerusalem

 

Published: 14 July 2006

 

Israeli forces blockaded Lebanese ports and bombed runways at Beirut airport yesterday in a series of fierce reprisal attacks that Lebanese officials say have killed 55 civilians.

 

Tthe biggest military operation since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon six years ago came in response to a raid by Hizbollah on Wednesday in which two soldiers were seized while on patrol on the Israeli side of the border. The most serious casualties were caused by a series of air raids on south Lebanon that Lebanese security officials say killed 55 people and wounded 110. Sources said 10 members of a single family were killed in Dweir village and seven from another family were killed in Baflay.

 

The Israeli military said Hizbollah guerrillas fired more than 100 Katyusha rockets in retaliation at towns and villages across the north of Israel, killing two women in what was the most serious barrage since the mid-1990s. One woman was killed in Nahariya and another woman died from her wounds in Safed.

 

The guerrilla group appeared last night to have dramatically exceeded the rocket's previous range by launching two at the coastal city of Haifa. Another landed in the suburbs. Danny Ayalon, Israeli ambassador to the US, said the attack was a "major, major, escalation" but Hizbollah's initial reaction was to deny its rockets had been fired at Haifa.

 

Israeli planes late last night launched a second attack on Beirut's airport, setting fuel tanks ablaze, and leafleted residents in the crowded southern suburbs of Beirut, warning them to stay away from Hizbollah sites in an apparent prelude to further air raids. Israeli jets also bombed the highway linking Beirut with the Syrian capital, Damascus.

 

The Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad responded by warning Israel against an attack on Syria. "If the Zionist regime commits another ****** move and attacks Syria, this will be considered like attacking the whole Islamic world and this regime will receive a very fierce response," he said.

 

Earlier, Israeli forces attacked two military bases and hinted at a ground offensive, the Lebanese Information Minister, Ghazi al-Aridi, said that Lebanon wanted a comprehensive ceasefire and an end to "this open-ended aggression" by Israel.

 

Israeli helicopters also fired on three facilities of the Hizbollah-operated al-Manar television network. One person was reported killed and 10 wounded.

 

The US vetoed a UN resolution last night that demanded Israel halt its military offensive in Gaza ­ the first UN Security Council veto in almost two years.Ten of the 15 countries voted in favour; while Britain, Denmark, Slovakia and Peru abstained.

 

President George Bush voiced concern about the fate of Lebanon's fragile government, which is no longer dominated by Syria, but said: "Israel has the right to defend herself." Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said Israel should respond to the "inexcusable provocation" in a "measured and proportionate" way.

 

The seized Israeli soldiers were named as Ehud Goldwasser, 31, of Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, of Kiryat Motzkin. The deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry, Gideon Meir, said Israel would not negotiate "with any organisation that kidnaps soldiers".

 

The operation in Lebanon has opened a second front a fortnight after Israeli troops staged their first military operations inside Gaza since withdrawing from the Strip last summer. After 23 Palestinians were killed in attacks on Wednesday, Israel's air force bombed the Hamas-controlled Foreign Ministry overnight. The operation in Gaza was launched with the stated aim of freeing an abducted 19-year-old army corporal, Gilad Shalit, and stopping Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza.

 

Israel said it was hitting targets that were of assistance to Hizbollah and which had been operating without interference from the Lebanese government.

 

The main players as Israel fights on two fronts

 

Ehud Olmert

 

Four months after his election victory promising a West Bank withdrawal and greater security, Prime Minister Olmert is fighting on two fronts.

 

Amir Peretz

 

Leader of Israel's Labour party, he has had his pacifist beliefs sorely tested since becoming defence minister in March. Faces international pressure to minimise civilian casualties.

 

Bashar Assad

 

The Syrian President will feel increasing international pressure to rein in his Hizbollah and Hamas allies. The US holds Syria responsible for the crisis.

 

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah

 

Hizbollah's leader, believed to be in southern Beirut, threatened further rocket attacks if Israeli air strikes continue, and said the two soldiers will be freed only in an exchange.

 

Khaled Mashal

 

The Hamas political leader is in hiding in Damascus. Has said Hamas will only release the Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza in exchange for prisoners.

 

Israeli forces blockaded Lebanese ports and bombed runways at Beirut airport yesterday in a series of fierce reprisal attacks that Lebanese officials say have killed 55 civilians.

 

Tthe biggest military operation since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon six years ago came in response to a raid by Hizbollah on Wednesday in which two soldiers were seized while on patrol on the Israeli side of the border. The most serious casualties were caused by a series of air raids on south Lebanon that Lebanese security officials say killed 55 people and wounded 110. Sources said 10 members of a single family were killed in Dweir village and seven from another family were killed in Baflay.

 

The Israeli military said Hizbollah guerrillas fired more than 100 Katyusha rockets in retaliation at towns and villages across the north of Israel, killing two women in what was the most serious barrage since the mid-1990s. One woman was killed in Nahariya and another woman died from her wounds in Safed.

 

The guerrilla group appeared last night to have dramatically exceeded the rocket's previous range by launching two at the coastal city of Haifa. Another landed in the suburbs. Danny Ayalon, Israeli ambassador to the US, said the attack was a "major, major, escalation" but Hizbollah's initial reaction was to deny its rockets had been fired at Haifa.

 

Israeli planes late last night launched a second attack on Beirut's airport, setting fuel tanks ablaze, and leafleted residents in the crowded southern suburbs of Beirut, warning them to stay away from Hizbollah sites in an apparent prelude to further air raids. Israeli jets also bombed the highway linking Beirut with the Syrian capital, Damascus.

 

The Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad responded by warning Israel against an attack on Syria. "If the Zionist regime commits another ****** move and attacks Syria, this will be considered like attacking the whole Islamic world and this regime will receive a very fierce response," he said.

 

Earlier, Israeli forces attacked two military bases and hinted at a ground offensive, the Lebanese Information Minister, Ghazi al-Aridi, said that Lebanon wanted a comprehensive ceasefire and an end to "this open-ended aggression" by Israel.

 

Israeli helicopters also fired on three facilities of the Hizbollah-operated al-Manar television network. One person was reported killed and 10 wounded.

 

The US vetoed a UN resolution last night that demanded Israel halt its military offensive in Gaza ­ the first UN Security Council veto in almost two years.Ten of the 15 countries voted in favour; while Britain, Denmark, Slovakia and Peru abstained.

President George Bush voiced concern about the fate of Lebanon's fragile government, which is no longer dominated by Syria, but said: "Israel has the right to defend herself." Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said Israel should respond to the "inexcusable provocation" in a "measured and proportionate" way.

 

The seized Israeli soldiers were named as Ehud Goldwasser, 31, of Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, of Kiryat Motzkin. The deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry, Gideon Meir, said Israel would not negotiate "with any organisation that kidnaps soldiers".

 

The operation in Lebanon has opened a second front a fortnight after Israeli troops staged their first military operations inside Gaza since withdrawing from the Strip last summer. After 23 Palestinians were killed in attacks on Wednesday, Israel's air force bombed the Hamas-controlled Foreign Ministry overnight. The operation in Gaza was launched with the stated aim of freeing an abducted 19-year-old army corporal, Gilad Shalit, and stopping Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza.

 

Israel said it was hitting targets that were of assistance to Hizbollah and which had been operating without interference from

[General Duke]

Israelis take cover as rockets rain down on north

 

Jerusalem

Friday July 14, 2006

The Guardian

 

 

First came the whistling whooshing noise, then two earth-shuddering bangs. The rockets had landed and people started running everywhere in panic. Naharia hospital was in emergency.

The loud-hailers around the hospital erupted. "Go to the bunkers, go to the bunkers", they barked in Hebrew. A handful of workers, taking a break after helping the wounded from an earlier Katyusha rocket barrage, rushed back inside. Dark smoke was swirling through the hospital grounds. "Don't go out there," a man in white warned ominously.

 

Hizbullah fighters in Lebanon fired at least 70 rockets into northern Israel yesterday, killing at least one woman in Naharia and injuring 42 people across the region. The woman was sitting on a fifth-floor balcony when a rocket hit her building and sliced through her ceiling.

 

Residents in towns near the Lebanese border were ordered to take cover in bomb shelters during what was the heaviest rocket barrage seen in northern Israel in a decade. Cars were seen driving south with suitcases tied to the roof, and rockets were reported to have landed up to 30km inside Israel. Several buildings were damaged at the Meron Air Force base when rockets hit, the army said.

 

Inside Naharia hospital there was a mood of controlled panic - but also one of defiance. Mano Cohen, a Holocaust survivor, was locking up the canteen much against his will. "The management told us to do it but I think they're wrong," he said angrily. "I feel it's important to stay here and to serve the people."

 

His co-worker, an Argentinian Jew, had just come off the phone from her panicked son in Buenos Aires. She started to cry and he placed a comforting arm around her. Mr Cohen admitted he had sent his children and grandchildren to Tel Aviv in the south but he was going nowhere. As a child he had survived by hiding from the Nazis in underground basements in Poland and vowed never do so again.

 

"Look, when I opened my front door this morning I saw a Katyusha rocket fly by, literally. It was a bit strange but I've seen a lot of strange and frightening things in my life. In Naharia they've not seen so much, that's why some people are worried," he said.

 

Hospital workers agreed: the last time a rocket landed in the town was 10 years ago and the last barrage was at the height of the Lebanon war in the early 1980s.

 

As a precaution yesterday many of the patients, including women and children, were taken to the underground hospital - a reinforced basement which can hold 250 patients. It was completed in 2003 and was being used for the first time.

 

Walking through the corridors, a hospital spokeswoman, Judy Jochwitz, showed where dozens of patients were lined up in underground wards. "It's a very dramatic development," she said.

 

One of the survivors of a rocket attack, Dr Pesach Gal, 59, was nursing wounds from flying glass. "The missiles hit the wall 40 metres from me. The windows, doors, everything was shattered but I guess God helped me today," he said.

 

Propped up on a nearby bed, Ruth, a resident of Naharia with a broken arm and hip, said: "We're frustrated and angry. Now we have to change our whole life and go back 20 years. It's an unbearable situation living on the ground, but I think the real panic will only last for a few days. After all Jewish people are used to it - to fight, to suffer, to fight for our existence."

 

But no one in the hospital or Naharia city appeared to offer a clear idea of what they wanted the government or military to do - or how to do it, just so long as they made the rockets stop.

 

Later in the day a trickle of traffic made its way through Naharia's near-deserted streets. Men, women and children slowly emerged from underground bunkers.

 

Eli Ran, 22, had kept his kiosk open all day but knew a rocket had hit the adjacent building. He was thinking about closing, but only because of a lack of customers. "I've just left the army," he said. "So I've seen this kind of thing happen. What are we supposed to do?" he said, without seeking an answer.

 

Meanwhile Israel destroyed the office of the Palestinian foreign minister, Mahmoud al-Zahar, in Gaza city in an air strike. Palestinian officials said no one was hurt. Mr Zahar is a senior figure in the Hamas movement. The International Committee of the Red Cross said water and fuel supplies had become a big concern in the Gaza Strip and called on the Israelis to ensure food, water, health care and shelter for the 1.4 million Palestinians living there.

[General Duke]

Iranian President Warns Israel About Syria

 

By NASSER KARIMI

The Associated Press

Thursday, July 13, 2006; 10:00 PM

 

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's president warned Israel against extending its offensive in Lebanon to neighboring Syria, saying such a move would be regarded as an attack on the whole Islamic world and be met with a "crushing response," the official Iranian news agency said Friday.

 

Israel has intensified its attacks on Lebanon to put pressure on the government and force Hezbollah to free the two Israeli soldiers it captured Wednesday. Syria and Iran are the top backers of the Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon.

 

 

 

Syrian workers and families fleeing from Lebanon pass through the Syrian border post of Jdeideh July 13, 2006. Hordes of travelers poured into Syria from Lebanon on Thursday, fleeing Israeli bombing that turned Syria into Lebanon's only outlet to the world.(AP Photo /Bassem Tellawi). (Bassem Tellawi - AP)

 

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"If the occupying regime of Jerusalem attacks Syria, it will be equivalent to an attack on the whole Islamic world and the regime (Israel) will face a crushing response" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by IRNA.

 

Ahmadinejad made the comments in a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar Assad to assure him of his support, the agency said.

 

The Iranian leader called on Muslim countries to create a united front against Israel.

 

"The Islamic world, especially countries in this region, need more unity and integrity, particularly in the context of Lebanon and Palestine," Ahmadinejad said.

 

Separately, the spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, Hamid Reza Asefi, denied Israeli allegations that the captured Israeli soldiers were being transferred to Iran.

 

On Thursday, Israel said it had information that Hezbollah guerrillas were trying to transfer the soldiers to Iran, apparently to prevent Israeli troops from rescuing them.

 

"These sort of accusations are simply nonsense," Asefi said, according to IRNA.

 

The head of Israel's northern command, Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, said Wednesday that Israel did not intend "at the moment" to take action against Syria over Hezbollah's capture of the soldiers.

[Xoogsade]

Originally posted by General Duke:

^^^Man you are foolish, nothing less. I have answered your clan accusations against my person many times before, but despite many response, you still try to picture me as a heathen against my own family.

 

You only attcak me because of my clan. You read an article about the Middle East and of such magnitude and all you remember is that duke belongs to that clan.. Pathetic indeed..

 

Now more on the story...

Does your family in Muqdisho know how bad you want A/Y to have MIG-21s, tanks and heavy artillery so he can reduce them to ashes and rule over their ghosts? I always remember your animosity towards others no doubt. To me, Duke=Colaad.

 

I don't need to paint yourself, you do the painting in a more profound way than I can ever master.

[General Duke]

^^^Rubish as usual, I stand firm in my position, I am not interested in your slimy clan centric comments, its pathetic how you always chase me, because of my clan .

 

Your dilema is you belive that all members of my clan are out for revenge, out to kill the people of Mogadishu, who happen to be no different to them. No Xoogsade, you are mistaken, it is you who is disturbed, who is suffering, it is you who can not see beyound clan..

 

 

Remember I was against the warlords of Moadishu long before it became fashionable, I have and continue to support the unarmed clans which you conveniently overlook. I support the national government of Somalia. I will continue to.. You need to reflect on what you writte....

 

Now back to the topic...

[General Duke]

Iran denies Israel fears that soldiers head to Iran

 

13 Jul 2006 16:24:41 GMT

Source: Reuters

 

TEHRAN, July 13 (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Ministry denied on Thursday Israeli suggestions that Iranian-backed Hizbollah guerrillas could take two captured Israeli soldiers from Lebanon to Iran, saying Jerusalem was "talking absurdities".

 

"I strongly deny such reports," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. "Because of its desperation and increasing isolation in the world and because of the tension and crisis created inside Israel, it is now talking absurdities."

 

Lebanese soldiers secure fuel tanks on fire at Beirut international airport after being attacked by Israeli aircraft July 13, 2006. Israel struck Beirut airport and Hizbollah's television station on Thursday and killed 22 civilians in raids on south Lebanon, intensifying its reprisals after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight

[Xoogsade]

Originally posted by General Duke:

^^^Rubish as usual, I stand firm in my position, I am not interested in your slimy clan centric comments, its pathetic how you always chase me, because of my clan .

 

Your dilema is you belive that all members of my clan are out for revenge, out to kill the people of Mogadishu, who happen to be no different to them. No Xoogsade, you are mistaken, it is you who is disturbed, who is suffering, it is you who can not see beyound clan..

 

 

Remember I was against the warlords of Moadishu long before it became fashionable, I have and continue to support the unarmed clans which you conveniently overlook. I support the national government of Somalia. I will continue to.. You need to reflect on what you writte....

 

Now back to the topic...

Most of your clansmen on this forum are outstanding saxib. I wouldn't mind getting to know some of them in real life so I could learn few things from them or chatt. You will never see me talk to them negatively. All I said was directed against you as an individual and like-minded others but not towards your clan. Qof walba siduu yahay aa lagula dhaqmaa, Al-cadaalah ha illoobin. I like to give you a little kick here and there, that is all. Adiga qudhaada ma xumid haddaad nabadda qaadato oo dagaal abaabulka aa naga dhaaftid.

 

Calaacalkaaga waa batay, so I give you a break son. lol@chasing me for my clan. And I thought nin oday ah inaa tahay oo wax iska celin karo.

 

Waa ku daayay duke, anaa oday noqonaayo.

[General Duke]

^^^ I detest getting personel with people in this type of open forum. You make silly accusations constintly, repetitive and meaningless that go beyound debating. Its because of the reasons I gave above, since you do not know me personally. Indeed you probably are a decent person. But trust me I am not intresed in personalising anything with anyone.

 

Try to move away from this obsession you hav with my clans supposed revenge complex regarding Mogadish and its people. Mogadishu is a city I love...

[Xoogsade]

No hard feelings Duke.

[Arawella]

Lads, I think there is more at stake here hence spare us your pickering or animosity of each others clan!

[Ibtisam]

I'm glade you kissed and made up!. Perhaps now you can focus on more important things in life. Both of you are as bad as each other. :rolleyes: I don't understand how you can read, comprehend the articles that you posted, and then argue over such stupidness :mad:

[Saalixa]

And thats why muslims all over where ever they are loose wars

 

just look at these two men. i thought we were talking about israel and lebanon and you go to muqdishu? it will be next in the following years every muslim state is at stake so no need to pin point. We should grief over what has happened today and build on our selves. THis is a war against muslims. Not a nationalist movement.

 

idinki baa dhexdiina is la heshiinla' oo is dagaaltamaya ee ma gaalo baad kheyr iyo walaaatinimo idin haya meelshaad dhex joogtaan right now and this minute? wake up somalis. This is a war against YOU and ME as muslims!