LEBANON: Israel steps up Lebanese strikes

Record ID: 341293

  • Title: LEBANON: Israel steps up Lebanese strikes
  • Date: 14th July 2006
  • Summary: (W3) BEIRUT, LEBANON (JULY 14 2006)(REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ISRAEL AIRCRAFT POUNDING BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT/SMOKE RISING
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAE0H2T1JDF7SDZDW5ZQNKLEGIE
  • Story Text: Israeli jets destroyed roads and junctions in Hizbollah's southern Beirut stronghold on Friday (July 14) hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered a more intense response to the group's capture of two Israeli soldiers.
    Three people were killed and 20 wounded in the pre-dawn raids on the Shi'ite Muslim suburb, security sources said. Shops and buildings were damaged and dozens of cars wrecked in the district, home to hundreds of thousands of people.
    A series of similar strikes forced the closure of a highway linking Beirut to Damascus and set a fuel storage facility at the Jiyyeh power plant outside the city ablaze.
    Hassan Humani, a doctor at a Beirut hospital said that windows were shattered and employees were injured in the raids.
    "We took patients to hospital shelters and recovery rooms. There is a lot of damage," Humani said.
    Israeli aircraft also fired rockets into a runway at Beirut's international airport, witnesses and security sources said.
    The facility has been closed since Israeli warplanes first bombed its runways on Thursday morning but four planes of the national carrier Middle East Airlines took off empty to fly to the safety of Amman airport shortly before the raid.
    At least 60 people, almost all civilians, have been killed since the beginning of Israel's offensive on Wednesday. The Shi'ite Muslim group Hizbollah has bombarded towns across northern Israel, killing two and wounding more than 100.
    Israel's decision to ramp up the attacks came at a meeting of security chiefs after a day in which Israel blockaded Lebanese ports, struck Beirut airport and two military airbases near Syria, and attacked bridges and houses in the south.
    The attacks virtually isolated Lebanon by air, sea and land.
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