U.S. marines boarded 1,000 evacuees from Lebanon onto the U.S.S. Nashville yesterday.
Photo: AP
|
 |
23 Tons of Bombs Dropped on Hezbollah Leader’s Bunker
The Israeli-Lebanese Conflict
The Israeli Air Force dropped 23 tons of explosives on Beirut’s neighborhood Thursday night. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Shiite radical movement, Hezbollah, was reportedly hiding in a bunker in Bourj al-Barajneh. The militants said no one was hurt in the bombing. Meanwhile, the Israelis have started operations involving ground troops in Lebanon. Beirut promised that the Lebanese army will act against Israel if the operation turns into a large-scale invasion.
Bombing the Sheikh
Nasrallah have always lived in southern Lebanon, but he now prefers to live in the country’s center. Beirut’s southern suburbs like Haret Hreyk have lately become a kind of headquarters for the organization’s leadership with security and check points at the entrance. Houses for families of Hezbollah’s leadership are here as well. No surprisingly, the Israeli air force hit these areas in the first hours of the war as Israel’s authorities initially stated that the operation was aimed at the destruction of Hezbollah and the annihilation of its leader.
Oddly enough, Sheikh Nasrallah remained in this den after the start of the conflict. The Israeli intelligence obtained information Wednesday that the Sheikh was hiding in a bunker in Beirut’s neighborhood of Bourj al-Barajneh, near to the destroyed Haret-Hreyk.
Two dozen of jets were used to make an air strike on the area using special burrowing bombs. Over 23 tons of explosives was involved in the operation in Bourj al-Barajneh last night, an Israeli military official reported. However, the Israeli did not say how successful the operation had been. Hezbollah said yesterday no one was hurt in the bombing, let alone the leadership. The Israeli dropped the bombs on a mosque which is under construction but there has never been a bunker in that area, a representative of Hezbollah said.
The Ground Issue
Israel perfectly realizes that the air force is now almighty. Ground troops are needed to meet the aims and destroy Hezbollah or at least strip them of the control over southern Lebanon. The Israeli Army officials admitted Wednesday night that special forces are active in southern Lebanon, for the first time in the operation. Their mission is to find and destroy rocket launchers of Hezbollah, arms depots and small groups of militants.
The Debka web-sit, close to the Israeli special services, states that the special forces have been in Lebanon from the very start of the operation. What is more, the groups are fighting not only in southern Lebanon but also in the center and even in the north of the country. On top of this, at least one group has been sent to Syria, close to the Lebanese border. The Israeli thus wanted to foil the supply of arms for Hezbollah as the deliveries are made through this region by the Iran-Syria-Lebanon route.
Meanwhile, the number of air raids of Hezbollah in Israeli towns has dropped. Some fifteen rockets, compared to 60 on Wednesday, was launched on Israel yesterday. No one was hurt.
The Israeli Army has also started large-scale combing operations on the border. Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000 leaving the scores of defense fortifications. Hezbollah came to replace Israel and boosted the zone over the last six years. Yesterday, Israeli bulldozers and sappers started destroying the fortified area of bunkers, dug-outs and watch posts. Hezbollah fighters, however, put up resistance shooting one Israeli tank. Two tankmen were injured. On Wednesday, two Israeli were killed and ten got wounded in the same are of southern Lebanon.
Israeli Choice
Gen. Dan Halutz, chief of the Israeli Army’s General Staff, gave a special address to the military yesterday. “We are fighting to destroy the terrorists’ infrastructure on the Lebanese front. We will strike on bases of Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists,” he said. He also added that the military campaign is at its height and will last for some time.
Israel is now facing a real dilemma. The military say that 50 percent of Hezbollah’s potential was destroyed. The air force, however, has exhausted its possibilities as all major aims have been destroyed and further use of jets is not effective. Only the ground operation can complete the task. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz are reluctant to use it, though. They realize that a campaign like this will entail real bloodshed. The international community will hardly have any understanding for it.
More criticism is heard against Israel. The Russian Foreign Ministry, for example, lambasted Israel yesterday urging to cease fire. Russian diplomats said that the scale of the operation is inconsistent with the goal – releasing the hostages and destroying Hezbollah’s infrastructure. “The unprecedented number of casualties and the scale of destruction [in Lebanon] show that the actions to reach these goals are far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.
Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities are trying to prevent the land operation. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora warned yesterday that the Lebanese army “would not remain passive” if Israel sends ground troops to the country.
Lebanese officials put the death toll from Israeli air raids at 350 people. Financial losses come to $2 billion and keep on growing. “It is a real massacre. Israel hits everything: small streets, ambulances or trucks,” Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said in an interview with France Inter yesterday and called on the international community to step in.
Looking for allies abroad, Beirut is also busy searching for traitors inside the country. 26 people have been arrested lately, suspected of spying in favor of Israel, Leban’s Daily Star reported quoting sources in the special services. The detainees allegedly transmitted the classified information to Israel and directed Israeli planes onto the targets. The Lebanese Interior Ministry denied the reports.
People are still being evacuated from Lebanon. Almost all the Russians who wished to leave were taken to Syria or Cyprus. 150 people still remain in the country as they are cut off in southern Lebanon unable to leave their houses because of Israeli air raids. The Russian Foreign Ministry is taking steps to help them.
United States Marines landed in Beirut yesterday. 40 military men from the assault ship U.S.S. Nashville are to help evacuate at least 6,000 Americans from Lebanon. This is the first time that American military personnel is deployed here in twenty three years. U.S. President George W. Bush said that American peace keepers should be in Lebanon if the decision is made to send peace keeping forces to the country.
Alexander Reutov
All the Article in Russian as of July 21, 2006
|
|
|
