Israel Pounds More Than 100 Targets in Lebanon
By VOA News
28 July 2006
Smoke billows on the outskirts of the village of Qlaia, next to the town of Marjayoun, in southern Lebanon, after an Israeli attack, July 27, 2006
Israeli warplanes have pounded more than 100 targets in southern and eastern Lebanon, as the Israeli military focuses on air strikes over riskier ground operations on the 17th day of its offensive against Hezbollah.
Lebanese and Israeli officials say Israeli aircraft fired Friday at targets near the southern Lebanese towns of Nabatiyeh and Arnoun. Israeli strikes killed at least six people.
Israel also hit a Hezbollah base in the Bekaa valley near Syria where it says long range rockets were stored.
Lebanon＇s health minister, Muhammed Jawad Khalifeh, says up to 600 Lebanese - almost all civilians - are believed killed since the fighting began earlier this month.
Israel says it has killed 200 Hezbollah fighters since early July, while more than 50 Israelis - mostly soldiers - have been killed in cross-border fighting and Hezbollah rocket attacks.
In other news, the United Nations is evacuating unarmed observers from outposts in southern Lebanon. The decision comes after four U.N. observers were killed by Israeli fire on Tuesday.
At first, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the attack on an observer post in Khiam was "apparently deliberate." But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the attack was an accident.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert＇s security cabinet authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers.
As the fighting rages, Middle East analysts say Israel will be unable to completely disarm Hezbollah.
They say Hezbollah receives about $100 million a year from Iran, and that its Iranian-supplied weaponry is transported through Syria to Hezbollah＇s stronghold in southern Lebanon.
But in Tehran today, Iran denied providing weapons to Hezbollah. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state television that if Iran was providing military support it would have announced it.
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