thedrifter
07-20-06, 06:02 AM
Israel hits Lebanon, Marines help Americans leave
Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:34 AM ET
By Alaa Shahine
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A token force of U.S. Marines landed in Lebanon on Thursday to evacuate Americans stranded by a nine-day-old Israeli bombardment that has killed more than 300 people but failed to stop Hizbollah rocket strikes on Israel.
It was the U.S. military's first return to Lebanon since it withdrew in 1984, months after a Shi'ite Muslim suicide bomber destroyed a Marine barracks killing 241 U.S. service personnel.
About 40 Marines arrived on a beach in a Christian area north of Beirut at dawn to ferry about 1,200 Americans to Cyprus as part of efforts to extract U.S. citizens caught in a war zone like thousands of other foreigners, many of Lebanese origin.
The Marines, helped by Lebanese soldiers, sloshed through waves to carry women and children to the landing craft. Some frightened children cried, but many people smiled with relief.
"We are very happy to leave," said Lebanese-born American Fadia Semaan, fleeing with her husband and three children.
"We are used to war from 30 years ago, but the kids are not," said her husband, George.
"We are glad to be leaving, but also very sad. We left a lot of family behind with no food or money or anything else."
Hizbollah, whose links to Iran and Syria raise fears the current conflict could spread, has not impeded the exodus of foreigners trapped in Lebanon by Israeli bombing of ports, airports and roads.
Israel is under pressure not to endanger the land and sea escape routes organized by embassies requesting safe passage for bus convoys to Syria and ferries to Cyprus, Greece or Turkey.
Instead, Israeli planes struck mostly at Shi'ite strongholds in the eastern towns of Baalbek and Hermel, the southern Beirut area of Bir al-Abed and several southern villages.
Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas along the border with Lebanon, the Israeli army said.
Israeli troops have launched cross-border raids in recent days to try to stop Hizbollah firing rockets into northern Israel, where 15 civilians have been killed.
Israel has not ruled out a major thrust into Lebanon, but is wary of returning to territory it abandoned under the pressure of Hizbollah attacks in 2000 after a 22-year occupation.
Israel launched its offensive after Hizbollah captured two soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on July 12. It has rejected Hizbollah's proposal for a prisoner swap.
RAID ON "BUNKER"
Soon after Lebanon's prime minister said Israel's onslaught had "torn the country to shreds", bombs crashed into a southern Beirut suburb on Wednesday aiming at what an Israeli military source said was a bunker sheltering Hizbollah's leader.
The Shi'ite guerrilla group said it had suffered no casualties in the raid on what it said was a half-built mosque.
Other air strikes killed 65 Lebanese civilians on Wednesday, the deadliest one-day toll so far. Hizbollah rockets killed two children in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth.
Frightened civilians feared the bombing would get worse once the evacuation of thousands of foreign nationals is completed.
"I have a very bad feeling that after the foreigners flee the bombings will get worse," said 37-year old Ziad Nayef, a costume designer. "Nobody cares about Arab lives."
There was no sign Israel or Hizbollah were ready to heed the Beirut government's pleas for an immediate halt to a war that has killed at least 301 people in Lebanon and 29 in Israel.
Russia has joined France in demanding a ceasefire, but the United States, Israel's chief ally, has opposed any resolution by the U.N. Security Council calling for a halt to the fighting.
"We are calling, as a first step, for the immediate declaration of a ceasefire," Russia's Kommersant newspaper on Thursday quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said more than 500,000 people had been displaced and appealed for international help.
His Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert said the bombardment would last "as long as necessary" to free the two soldiers captured by Hizbollah and ensure its militants are disarmed.
Israel's offensive in Lebanon has coincided with a major push into the Gaza Strip to retrieve another soldier, seized by Palestinian gunmen on June 25 and stop cross-border rocket fire.
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian in clashes in a central Gaza refugee camp on Thursday, witnesses said. An air strike on the same camp killed a militant and wounded eight, medics said.
Troops killed 15 Palestinians during raids in the Gaza Strip and West Bank on Wednesday. Israel's offensive, launched on June 28, has killed about 110 Palestinians, half of them militants.
(Additional reporting by Beirut and Jerusalem bureaux)
Ellie
Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:34 AM ET
By Alaa Shahine
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A token force of U.S. Marines landed in Lebanon on Thursday to evacuate Americans stranded by a nine-day-old Israeli bombardment that has killed more than 300 people but failed to stop Hizbollah rocket strikes on Israel.
It was the U.S. military's first return to Lebanon since it withdrew in 1984, months after a Shi'ite Muslim suicide bomber destroyed a Marine barracks killing 241 U.S. service personnel.
About 40 Marines arrived on a beach in a Christian area north of Beirut at dawn to ferry about 1,200 Americans to Cyprus as part of efforts to extract U.S. citizens caught in a war zone like thousands of other foreigners, many of Lebanese origin.
The Marines, helped by Lebanese soldiers, sloshed through waves to carry women and children to the landing craft. Some frightened children cried, but many people smiled with relief.
"We are very happy to leave," said Lebanese-born American Fadia Semaan, fleeing with her husband and three children.
"We are used to war from 30 years ago, but the kids are not," said her husband, George.
"We are glad to be leaving, but also very sad. We left a lot of family behind with no food or money or anything else."
Hizbollah, whose links to Iran and Syria raise fears the current conflict could spread, has not impeded the exodus of foreigners trapped in Lebanon by Israeli bombing of ports, airports and roads.
Israel is under pressure not to endanger the land and sea escape routes organized by embassies requesting safe passage for bus convoys to Syria and ferries to Cyprus, Greece or Turkey.
Instead, Israeli planes struck mostly at Shi'ite strongholds in the eastern towns of Baalbek and Hermel, the southern Beirut area of Bir al-Abed and several southern villages.
Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas along the border with Lebanon, the Israeli army said.
Israeli troops have launched cross-border raids in recent days to try to stop Hizbollah firing rockets into northern Israel, where 15 civilians have been killed.
Israel has not ruled out a major thrust into Lebanon, but is wary of returning to territory it abandoned under the pressure of Hizbollah attacks in 2000 after a 22-year occupation.
Israel launched its offensive after Hizbollah captured two soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on July 12. It has rejected Hizbollah's proposal for a prisoner swap.
RAID ON "BUNKER"
Soon after Lebanon's prime minister said Israel's onslaught had "torn the country to shreds", bombs crashed into a southern Beirut suburb on Wednesday aiming at what an Israeli military source said was a bunker sheltering Hizbollah's leader.
The Shi'ite guerrilla group said it had suffered no casualties in the raid on what it said was a half-built mosque.
Other air strikes killed 65 Lebanese civilians on Wednesday, the deadliest one-day toll so far. Hizbollah rockets killed two children in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth.
Frightened civilians feared the bombing would get worse once the evacuation of thousands of foreign nationals is completed.
"I have a very bad feeling that after the foreigners flee the bombings will get worse," said 37-year old Ziad Nayef, a costume designer. "Nobody cares about Arab lives."
There was no sign Israel or Hizbollah were ready to heed the Beirut government's pleas for an immediate halt to a war that has killed at least 301 people in Lebanon and 29 in Israel.
Russia has joined France in demanding a ceasefire, but the United States, Israel's chief ally, has opposed any resolution by the U.N. Security Council calling for a halt to the fighting.
"We are calling, as a first step, for the immediate declaration of a ceasefire," Russia's Kommersant newspaper on Thursday quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said more than 500,000 people had been displaced and appealed for international help.
His Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert said the bombardment would last "as long as necessary" to free the two soldiers captured by Hizbollah and ensure its militants are disarmed.
Israel's offensive in Lebanon has coincided with a major push into the Gaza Strip to retrieve another soldier, seized by Palestinian gunmen on June 25 and stop cross-border rocket fire.
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian in clashes in a central Gaza refugee camp on Thursday, witnesses said. An air strike on the same camp killed a militant and wounded eight, medics said.
Troops killed 15 Palestinians during raids in the Gaza Strip and West Bank on Wednesday. Israel's offensive, launched on June 28, has killed about 110 Palestinians, half of them militants.
(Additional reporting by Beirut and Jerusalem bureaux)
Ellie