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International News Title: Two huge explosions have rocked Beirut - Israeli airstrike BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon -- Two huge explosions have rocked Beirut. Local media said the early-morning blasts are from a new Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah strongholds south of the city. There are no immediate reports of casualties in the two strikes, which hit just before 1 a.m. Israeli warplanes had dropped leaflets late Thursday warning residents in the area to leave. Israel last hit the area early Thursday. Many of the neighborhoods in the region just south of Beirut proper already lay in rubble from repeated Israeli attacks since the fighting began July 12. Earlier Thursday, Israel renewed airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs and an Israeli missile killed three people in a border village, a day after Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket barrage yet on the Jewish state. The Shiite guerrillas retaliated by firing at least 132 rockets at northern Israel -- 100 within several minutes -- killing at least seven people in Acre and Maalot. It was the bloodiest day since eight people were killed July 16 near a train maintenance depot. Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades -- roughly 10,000 troops -- were locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and the battle looked likely to be long and bitter. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said more than 900 people had been killed and 3,000 wounded, but he did not say whether the new figure -- up from 548 confirmed dead -- included people missing. More than 1 million people, a quarter of Lebanon's population, have been displaced, he said, adding that the fighting "is taking an enormous toll on human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered our economy." At the United Nations, France circulated a revised resolution calling for an immediate cessation of Israeli-Hezbollah hostilities. It also spells out conditions for a lasting solution to the crisis, including: deploying peacekeepers; creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops; the release of two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hezbollah; and the "settlement of the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel." So far, Washington has resisted calls for a cease-fire without simultaneous steps to deploy peacekeepers and tackle Hezbollah's disarmament. France insists the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace. Islamic Group Demands Cease-Fire Elswhere, an emergency meeting of the Islamic world's biggest bloc demanded that the United Nations implement an immediate cease-fire and investigate what it called Israel's flagrant human rights violations. Iran's hardline president said the obliteration of Israel would cure the Middle East's woes. Related: Images | Interactive Amid the diplomatic wrangling, Hezbollah's chief spokesman said his group will not agree to a cease-fire until all Israeli troops leave Lebanon. "Declaring a cease-fire is not the concern of the people of Lebanon as long as there is one Israeli soldier on Lebanese soil ... It is the right of every Lebanese to fight until liberation," Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal said in a live interview with Al-Jazeera television. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his country would stop its offensive only after international peacekeepers were in place in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army said its soldiers had taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as they try to carve out a five-mile-wide Hezbollah-free zone ahead of deployment of a multinational force there. Most of the villages are near the Israel-Lebanon border; the one deepest inside Lebanon, Majdel Zoun, is about four miles from the frontier. However, many tanks pushed farther north, controlling open areas from higher ground, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation. In fighting Thursday: Two Israeli soldier was killed and four wounded in heavy ground battles around the southern village of Ayt a-Shab, the Israeli military said. It said four Hezbollah fighters were killed and two wounded; there was no confirmation from Hezbollah. In the border village of Taibeh, an Israeli missile crashed into a two-story house, killing a couple and their daughter, Lebanese security officials said. Guerrillas clashed with Israeli troops, destroying a tank and two bulldozers and wounding its crew members, Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said. The Israeli army said only a tank was lightly hit. In the first air raids on Beirut in almost a week, witnesses said at least four missiles hit the southern suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim area repeatedly shelled by Israel. Lebanese television said the attacks targeted a Hezbollah compound that includes a center for religious teaching. The compound already was damaged by earlier raids. In the southern town of Nabatiyeh, Israeli jets struck an ambulance working for a local Muslim group. Two people were injured in Israeli air raids on villages nearby, and artillery landed near a Lebanese army base in the town, Lebanese security officials said. Israeli warplanes fired more than a dozen missiles at roads and suspected guerrilla hideouts in the southeastern town of Rashaya, the security officials said. They said the attacks were part of Israel's strategy to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure. Other strikes hit targets near the northern border with Syria overnight, Lebanese radio said. It was the second attack in the area in 24 hours, after a bridge linking the zone to the northern port of Tripoli was destroyed Wednesday. Israel: Hezbollah Used Human Shields At Qana Israel's onslaught came after Hezbollah landed its deepest hits yet, with missiles landing Wednesday in the West Bank and Beit Shean, Israel, about 42 miles from the border. An Israeli-American man was killed and 21 others were wounded as Hezbollah fired a record 230 rockets. Meanwhile, an Israeli military inquiry into the bombing Sunday of a building in the southern village of Qana, which killed mostly women and children, admitted a mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields. "Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," a statement from the inquiry said. While Lebanese officials said 56 died in Qana, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday there were 28 known dead and 13 missing. The prospect of a longer war already has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is high. In Malaysia, leaders of key countries in the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference issued a declaration calling for a U.N.-implemented cease-fire and warning that the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting would fan Muslim radicalism worldwide. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who has in the past called for Israel to be wiped off the map - said "the main solution (to the Mideast conflict) is for the elimination of the Zionist regime." He added that all Muslim states should cut political and economic ties with Israel and "isolate" the United States and Britain for supporting the attacks against Lebanon. Jordan's King Abdullah II, a key U.S. ally, issued an ominous warning to America and Israel that the prolonged battle in Lebanon has weakened moderates all across the Mideast. Even if Hezbollah is destroyed, the hostility toward Israel is so high that another such group may pop up in Syria, Egypt, Iraq - or even his own country, King Abdullah II, a key U.S. ally, said, according to published reports. "The Arab people see Hezbollah as a hero because it's fighting Israel's aggression," he said. "This is a fact that the U.S. and Israel must realize: As long as there is aggression, there's resistance and there's popular support for this resistance." At least 548 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began, including 477 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas. The health minister says the toll could be as high as 750, including those still buried in rubble or missing. In all, 64 Israelis have died - 38 soldiers as well as 26 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
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#1. To: TLBSHOW (#0)
France?! Bwahahahahahahaha...MUD
Question Conventional Wisdom!!
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