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Baalbek Raid: 10 Hizbullies dead, 5 captured
Israeli commandoes landed by helicopter near Baalbek Tuesday night kill 10 Hizballah operatives, take 5 prisoners and return safely to base. DEBKAfile reports the Israeli force fought its way into the Dar al Hikmeh hospital which Hizballahs Beqaa commander Muhammad Yazbek had converted into his staff headquarters. This was the deepest Israeli incursion in Lebanon so far, 150km from the border. Yazbek, member of Hizballah's high council and close to Tehran, was not there. DEBKAfiles senior military sources report Israel is going all out in an effort to finally overwhelm Hizballah on all fronts and generate conditions for the deployment of a multinational force in South Lebanon. Overnight, Lebanese witnesses reported an unprecedented number of Israeli warplanes over the Beqaa valley Tuesday night and aerial strikes against five Hizballah positions near Baalbek. From the Mediterranean, Israel naval artillery pounded Hizballah rocket sites on the Lebanese shore. Hizballah denies losing 240 men in the three-week Lebanon war. Its Al Manar television station claims the prisoners taken in the Israeli commando operation and the Lebanese killed in Israeli air attacks around Baalbek were innocent civilians. This is a routine claim in its propaganda war. Tuesday, Israeli Arabic broadcasts began reading out the names of Hizballah casualties. Posted by: Steve 2006-08-02 |
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