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Commandos target Hezbollah leaders
ISRAELI naval commandos landed in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre Saturday, storming an apartment block where they killed three Hezbollah militants in fierce clashes before escaping back to Israel.The operation, the second such raid this week, came as Israel launched its heaviest bombardment of southern Lebanon since its offensive began, carrying out 250 air raids and firing some 4000 shells into the region. The Israeli military said it killed three Hezbollah militants in the night-time commando raid and that eight of its soldiers were wounded - two of them, including an officer, seriously. "Guided by very precise intelligence, navy commandos entered an apartment on the second floor of a five-story building in the north of Tyre, where they killed at least three Hezbollah leaders," an Israeli naval commander said. "There were point-blank exchanges of fire and grenades were thrown inside the apartment and two of our troops were seriously wounded," he said. The commander said the three dead were behind the firing of a missile late Friday on the Israeli town of Hadera, some 75 kilometres from the frontier, the deepest strike into the Jewish state of the present conflict. "Our commandos were able to retreat and to hit with counterstrikes six to eight terrorists from neighbouring buildings, killing some of them, and to return to Israel with aviation support," he said. A Lebanese soldier was also killed in the commando raid after his unit opened fire on the Israeli helicopters, police said. A witness close to Hezbollah, who declined to be named, told AFP that an Israeli helicopter landed at Jall al-Bahr, an area of orchards at Tyre's northern entrance, and fell straight into a Hezbollah "ambush". "A member of the commando group was killed and three others wounded," said the source, who added that the soldiers left a trail of blood in their wake as they made their escape through a hole in a fence. It was the first time in the conflict that Israeli troops had landed in the southern port city, but the raid came days after a similar helicopter-borne operation near the eastern city of Baalbek resulted in the capture of five alleged militants. Police said that the Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at Tyre's northern entrance, provoking a barrage of anti-aircraft fire. A large number of helicopters had roared over Tyre before dawn, strafing all routes into the city. Residents said the exchanges sparked panic in the area. A clinic north of the city said it was forced to move its patients for their own safety. "It was a real battle," a doctor said. The barrage of raids over south Lebanon Saturday lasted for seven hours from dawn, with the worst-hit region the area around the village of Aitaroun which was hit by 2,000 shells. Police said that 15 villages some five kilometres (three miles) from the border were being systematically destroyed by the bombardments, which come after Israel vowed to create a security zone free of Hezbollah fighters. Fourteen people were wounded, with more casualties only avoided because the villages had already largely emptied of residents in the face of persistent Israeli fire. Israeli troops have advanced from at least seven points on the border to establish a border buffer zone that General Udi Adam, chief of Israel's northern command, said is now up to 10 kilometres (six miles) deep. "On the 25th day of our offensive, we control in south Lebanon a zone of five to eight, even 10 kilometres," the general said. In fighting around the village of Taibe not far from the border, one soldier was killed and another lightly wounded, an army spokesman in Tel Aviv said. Israeli warplanes also carried out pre-dawn attacks for a third straight night against Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah bastion. The fighter-bombers struck the area six times, police said, without immediately being able to give details of the targets. As daylight broke, flames were still visible from the area which was covered in a thick pall of black smoke. Posted by: tipper 2006-08-05 |
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