Israel approves wider ground offensive
(AP)
Updated: 2006-08-01 08:35
Nearby, the battle raged between guerrillas and soldiers. Warplanes struck
around the village of Taibeh to give ground cover after Hezbollah fighters hit a
tank with an anti-tank missile. The guerrillas also fired mortars into the
nearby Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, causing no casualties.
Hezbollah announced that five of its fighters were killed in the clashes,
bringing the group's acknowledged death toll to 43. Israel says dozens more
fighters have died.
Israel carried out two other airstrikes. One killed a Lebanese soldier in his
car outside Tyre, prompting Israel to express its regrets, saying it had
believed the vehicle was carrying a senior Hezbollah official. The other strike
hit the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing for the third day in a row.
Hezbollah also claimed to have hit an Israeli warship off the coast of Tyre
with a rocket, the second hit it would have scored on a ship. But Israel denied
any of its warships were hit Monday.
The guerrilla group did not shoot a single rocket into Israel as of early
evening, a remarkable turnaround for an area that had been hit by dozens of
missiles each day during the offensive.
At least 524 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began,
according to the Health Ministry. Fifty-one Israelis have died, including 33
soldiers and 18 civilians who died in rocket attacks.
|
