Battle rages for Lebanese town

PLATO2 · Jul 26, 2006

Battle rages for Lebanese town

Wednesday 26 July 2006, 12:07 Makka Time, 9:07 GMT

At least nine Israeli soldiers have been killed and 13 wounded in fighting with Hezbollah in a southern Lebanese town, Aljazeera's correspondent in Lebanon says.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said "violent confrontations" erupted between its fighters and Israeli forces attempting to advance from a hilltop towards a hospital in the town of Bint Jbeil on Wednesday.

Israeli media said up to 13 soldiers had been wounded. A military spokesman in Tel Aviv would confirm only that several soldiers were wounded and troops were continuing to face resistance in the border town.

"There are still exchanges of fire in Bint Jbeil ... They're putting up resistance and the fighting is continuing," the spokesman said.

Israeli commanders and UN peacekeepers had said on Tuesday that Bint Jbeil - 4km inside Lebanon - had been captured.

But Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, said in a television broadcast on Wednesday that the town - home to 4,000 people - was not in Israeli hands.

"They do not control Bint Jbeil. All the city of Bint Jbeil is still in the hands of the resistance," he said.

The Israeli army estimates that it has killed up to 30 fighters in the battle for what Israel considers a Hezbollah stronghold.

Until the latest fighting, nine Israeli troops had been killed in fighting inside southern Lebanon.
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Source:http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A2C12336-D283-47BC-8EED-A8B9E6528A49.htm

PLATO2 · Jul 26, 2006

Hezbollah chief threatens a wider war

Wednesday 26 July 2006, 4:56 Makka Time, 1:56 GMT

The leader of Hezbollah has threatened a new phase in the war with Israel and said his fighters will not accept any "humiliating" conditions for a ceasefire.

In a televised address on the eve of an international conference in Rome designed to find a solution to the two-week-old conflict, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah would reject any deal that compromised Lebanon's sovereignty.

"We cannot accept any condition humiliating to our country, our people or our resistance," Nasrallah said.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, had put forward peace proposals during a visit to the region this week. Lebanon's parliament speaker said these involved Hezbollah's withdrawal from the border and the deployment of an international force.

In the conflict, Hezbollah has hit Haifa, Israel's third-largest city 35km (20 miles) south of the border, with rockets for the first time.

"In the new period, our bombardment will not be limited to Haifa," Nasrallah said. "If matters develop, we will choose the time when we will move beyond, beyond Haifa."

Psychological war

Israel has launched an incursion into southern Lebanon against Hezbollah fighters.

"Whatever the incursion, it will not stop rocket fire into Israel," Nasrallah said.

He said that the Shia Muslim group would take back any land Israel occupied.

Nasrallah accused Israel of launching a psychological war to undermine Lebanese morale and of exaggerating casualties inflicted on Hezbollah.

"We do not hide our martyrs. If any of our leaders or ranks were killed, we announce that and take pride in that," he said.

Israel has said it plans to create a security zone in the south that it would keep until international forces arrive.

"Any coming of the Zionist army to our land will more enable us to damage its troops, officers and tanks," Nasrallah said.

Hezbollah attacks on Israeli forces helped to remove the Israeli army from south Lebanon in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.

"It will give us a wider and bigger chance for direct confrontation and to bleed the forces of this enemy," he said.

The US 'project'

Nasrallah said Israel had prepared to launch a war on Hezbollah and would have done so regardless of the group's capture of the soldiers. He said the United States wanted to wipe out Hezbollah as part of its plan for a new Middle East.

"The project upon which the war was planned is the return of Lebanon to the sphere of American-Israeli control," he said.

"In the view of the Americans, there are barriers to the new Middle East, meaning the area which the US administration controls.

"The main barriers ... are the resistance movements in Palestine and Lebanon and at the level of governments, Syria and Iran." Both countries back Hezbollah.

"Therefore what is required [by the United States] is work to end these barriers and their removal by way of the historic American project being prepared for this region."
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More:http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/352F3C7D-866F-48DB-B3C8-E1C1F40907A1.htm

PLATO2 · Jul 27, 2006

Islamic Resistance destroy two tanks in Maroun el-Ras, Bint Jbeil region; crews killed and injured

27/07/2006
The Islamic Resistance is still engaged in heroic confrontations in the Maroun el-Ras, Bint Jbeil and Aytaroun region for the sixth consecutive day, inflicting heavy losses among Israeli soldiers, armored vehicles, Merkava tanks and Apache helicopters. The Islamic Resistance said in a statement that Hezbollah fighters destroyed two Israeli tanks in the area between Maroun el-Ras and Bint Jbeil, killing and injuring their crews. Israeli Yadeot Aharonot said that four soldiers were injured in fighting near Bint Jbeil. Quoting sources close to the Resistance, the Lebanese Assafir daily said that Israeli forces have not settled in the town of Maoun el-Ras and that Hezbollah fighters had set mobile explosives which hit advancing Israeli forces near the Bint Jbeil Technical college and that Islamic Resistance fighters launched anti tank rockets against the force, used for the first time. Assafir added that resistance fighters conducted counter attacks through the outskirts of Yaroun towards the Israeli settlement of Avivim, and targeted a support unit killing one senior commander from the elite units on the southwestern side of Maroun el-Ras.
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Source:http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=191

PLATO2 · Jul 27, 2006

Resistance fighters destroy five Israeli tanks; kill four soldiers in Maroun el-Ras and shoot down a helicopter

27/07/2006

The Israeli media said that Hezbollah fighters are still conducting attacks against Israeli forces in border areas. Meanwhile, an Israeli minister said that the time has come for Israel to re-assess its objectives in order to find an exit out of this "crisis." In a clear indication to the fierceness of the battles in border regions, and amid an Israeli media blackout, media outlets in occupied Palestine questioned whether the Israeli army had been well trained to confront Hezbollah's fighters. The Islamic Resistance said in a statement that since 8am local time, Islamic Resistance fighters are confronting an Israeli armored force, reinforced with a paratroops unit, attempting to advance from the northern outskirts of Maroun el-Ras towards the city of Bint Jbeil. The statement added that Islamic Resistance fighters hit and destroyed four Israeli tanks and killed and injured their crews. In another statement, the Islamic Resistance said its fighters hit and destroyed a fifth tank in an area between the Israeli settlement of Avivim and Maroun el-Ras also killing and injuring its crew. Israeli military sources admitted that two soldiers have been killed and 17 others were injured, two seriously. The sources added that among the injured is a lieutenant colonel. The Islamic Resistance also said that its fighters downed an Apache helicopter over northern occupied Palestine. The two-men crew were killed. Earlier, Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said that ten Israeli soldiers were injured during fire exchanges between army units and Islamic Resistance fighters near the border area. News reports also said that one Israeli soldier was killed and 15 others were injured in an attack launched by Islamic Resistance fighters near the town of Maroun el-Ras. According to Haaretz, Israel estimates it has between one week to ten days to continue its aggressive offensive against Lebanon before a cease-fire. Israeli media said that Hezbollah still possesses large amounts of launch pads for short range missiles adding that it will be difficult to destroy the Islamic Resistance's internal arsenal.
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Source:http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=131

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Battle rages for Lebanese town

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