Israeli Commandos Renew Attack on Tyre

TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli naval commandos battled with Hezbollah in the southern port city of Tyre early Saturday, while Israeli air raids killed at least eight people in multiple strikes across Lebanon and a Hezbollah rocket barrage killed three in northern Israel.After days of negotiations, the U.S. and France reached agreement Saturday on a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at getting a cease-fire, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.He predicted it would be adopted in the next few days, but there was no let-up in fighting.Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah guerrillas also fought in several villages along the Lebanon-Israel border. A Hezbollah rocket hit a house in Israel’s western Galilee region, killing three Israelis, medics said, as dozens of missiles hit across northern Israel.Israel’s military also said it dropped leaflets over the city of Sidon on Saturday, urging residents to leave their homes and move north. The army said the action was a prelude to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s third-largest city.U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch met with Lebanese officials in Beirut trying to pave the way for ending hostilities. He talked with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a prominent Shiite who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah.“My meeting today was an important step to putting behind us forever the terrible violence witnessed in the past three weeks,” Welch said after meeting with Saniora.He said the talks focused on establishing a lasting political framework for Lebanon and an international force to support the Lebanese army in taking control of the south from Hezbollah.Both Israel and Hezbollah claimed victory in the battle at a Tyre apartment building.A senior Israeli naval officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the raid as “very successful,” saying Israeli commandos killed several Hezbollah commanders who had been planning rocket attacks on Israel.Hezbollah said its guerrillas and Lebanese soldiers repelled the assault by Israeli commandos, killing one of the raiders. It did not comment on its own casualties.Israeli officials said eight commandos were wounded in the wound, two of them seriously. They said an Israeli soldier was killed, but in ground fighting elsewhere in Lebanon.Lebanese military officials said the commandos landed near an orange grove, cut through a barbed wire fence and attacked the second floor of an apartment building.A resident said he saw the commandos attack the building. “They all had beards. I thought maybe they were Hezbollah,” said 18-year-old Qassem Aad, who lives nearby.Aad said that he saw several people walk out of the building with their hands up and that shooting then erupted. “I saw a man screaming – he was shot.”Ambulance workers said six people were killed, including two from Hezbollah and one soldier from the Lebanese army at a nearby checkpoint. A Lebanese army officer confirmed one Lebanese soldier died and said four people in the targeted apartment were killed. A civilian also was killed, local officials said.Meanwhile, explosions rattled Beirut as Israeli warplanes renewed their attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in the capital’s southern suburbs.In eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah mortars hit two vehicles of an Israeli engineering unit during a sweep of a village in the Taibeh area, killing a soldier and wounding nine, the Israeli army said.A gutted van with the charred body of the driver was found Saturday morning near Qaa in eastern Lebanon, said the town’s mayor, Saadeh Toum. Travelers have been taking dirt roads to travel from one place to another because of Israel’s bombardment of the main roads in the region.While meeting fierce resistance in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army claimed progress. Commanders said Israeli troops had knocked out half of Hezbollah’s long-range rockets and seized positions in or near 20 towns and villages as part its offensive to carve out a five-mile Hezbollah-free zone.“We plan to carry out the whole mission,” Defense Minister Amir Peretz said. “Hezbollah must not have illusions that we plan to give in.”Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, head of Israel’s northern command, said some troops were as much as six miles into Lebanon.As of Friday an Associated Press count showed at least 567 Lebanese had been killed, including 489 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 28 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. The Lebanese government’s Higher Relief Council put the death toll at 907.In Israel, 75 Israelis have been killed since the fighting erupted July 22 – 45 soldiers and 30 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.Israel also has been clashing with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip over their capture of an Israeli soldier June 25. Egypt and other countries have been trying to arrange the soldier’s release, but a senior Hamas official said Saturday that no deal was imminent.“So far there is nothing that could be a framework to get out of the crisis,” said Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau.

Israeli Commandos Renew Attack on Tyre

Israeli Commandos Renew Attack on Tyre

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