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Fierce fighting as IDF commandos launch raid deep in Lebanon
Israel Defense Forces commandos reportedly landed by helicopter late Tuesday night near the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek in what Lebanese security sources described as a major operation against suspected Hezbollah positions. Lebanese security sources said the troops landed as aircraft launched several strikes near Baalbek, which is located in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. One Lebanese officer said the Israel Air Force presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented."

The IDF reported at daybreak on Wednesday that its troops returned from the operation to their base in Israel unharmed. IDF also reported that Hezbollah militants sustained some casualties during the fighting and that several militants were captured by the IDF and taken back to Israel.

Lebanese security sources reported at least seven civilians killed in the air strike on a village near Baalbek. They said Israel Air Force planes bombarded the village of Jammaliyeh during clashes nearby in Baalbek. They said five members of the same family were found dead in one house and two more were found dead in another collapsed house.

The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes on Baalbek and its surroundings at 10:20 P.M. - three hours before the end of Israel's self-imposed two-day pause in air attacks. Helicopters fired rockets and heavy machinegun fire at targets near a hospital in Baalbek and other sites in the city, witnesses said. Witnesses in Baalbek said they saw dozens of IAF helicopters hovering over the city.

They said the hospital in Baalbek, filled with patients and wounded people, was bombed by IAF helicopters late Tuesday. Plumes of burning smoke billowed from the hospital after it was directly hit, they said. "The extreme, unprecedented number of aircraft indicates the possibility that the Israelis are planning to land troops, but we cannot yet confirm that," a security official said earlier, on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Flares held aloft by parachutes lighted the night sky to a daytime brilliance, the official said. Four hours into the operation the fighting continued, witnesses said. IAF warplanes staged more than 10 bombing runs at 2.20 A.M. (2320 GMT) Wednesday around the hospital as well as on hills in east and north Baalbek. The planes also dropped flares over the city while the heavy fighting was raging around the hospital, they added. Shortly after the IAF raids began, electricity was cut off, plunging Baalbek and other neighboring villages in total darkness.

IAF helicopters also attacked a target 15 kilometers west of Baalbek, starting a huge fire, witnesses said. It was not immediately known if the target was controlled by Hezbollah or the Lebanese army. Hezbollah claimed that the IDF commandos were trapped inside the hospital and were engaged in fierce fighting with guerilla fighters who surrounded the facility. There was no independent confirmation.
They were. Now they're out, with no losses, according to Fox News...
"A group of Israeli commandos was brought to the hospital by a helicopter. They entered the hospital and are trapped inside as our fighters opened fire on them and fierce fighting is still raging," Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal told AP. Rahal said IAF jets were attacking the surrounding guerillas with rockets. "The units have been surrounded by Hezbollah fighters and heavy fire is covering the area," said a Hezbollah source. "They [the Israelis] are firing everywhere and trying to get out of the area," the source said. Rahal said Hezbollah guerrillas were using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. He dismissed as "untrue" reports that the commandos managed to snatch some patients from the hospital and spirit them away in helicopters.

IAF helicopters also opened machine-gun fire on Hezbollah fighters entrenched outside the hospital, witnesses said. Repeated telephone calls to the Dar al-Hikma hospital went unanswered. "The battles are fierce... there are casualties among the civilians who live in the area," a Lebanese security source said.

Al-Jazeera reported that the commando force landed at the hospital, in the village of Tel Al-Abayed, in an apparent effort to strike a senior Hezbollah official Israel suspected was hospitalized there. According to the report, the hospital was evacuated prior to the start of the IDF operation. IAF fighter jets returned at 3:35 A.M. Wednesday and fired eight missiles on residential neighborhoods in eastern and northern Baalbek where Hezbollah's Shiite supporters live, witnesses said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

However, fierce fighting around the hospital stopped shortly before 4 A.M. as precarious calm prevailed in Baalbek, residents said. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, the residents said the Dar al-Hikma hospital is financed by an Iranian charity, the Imam Khomeini Charitable Society, which is close to Hezbollah. The hospital is also run by people close to Hezbollah, the residents said. Repeated telephone calls to the Dar al-Hikma hospital went unanswered.
Posted by: 3dc 2006-08-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=161668