Hizbollah rockets hit Israel after commando raid

Israeli soldiers deliver mines at the Israel-Lebanon border near Kiryat Shmona August 2, 2006. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday Israel will keep fighting Hizbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon until a strong international force is deployed. REUTERS/Carlos Barria


Israeli airstrikes pummel Baalbek Video

Aug. 2 - Israeli commandos snatched suspected Hizbollah members from Lebanon's ancient city of Baalbek in a helicopter-borne night raid backed by air strikes that killed 19 people.

The latest violence shattered a partial lull in Israeli bombing and erupted despite intensive international diplomacy aimed at halting the three-week-old war, in which at least 646 people in Lebanon and 54 Israelis have been killed.

Hizbollah denied any of its militants had been taken, although Lebanese security sources said at least three low-ranking members of the Shi'ite Islamist group were seized in the raid.

The raid was the first helicopter-borne assault deep inside Lebanon since Israel launched its assault after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack on July 12.

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By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah fired more rockets into Israel on Wednesday than on any previous day of the 22-day-old war, killing an Israeli and wounding 123, after helicopter-borne commandos launched Israel's deepest raid into Lebanon.

Air strikes in support of the helicopter raid in the Hizbollah stronghold of Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon killed 19 people, including four children.

Israeli sources said around 10,000 soldiers were now battling Hizbollah in southern Lebanon. The United Nations force in the area reported heavy exchanges of fire, with bombings in some areas and intensive shelling across the south.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Reuters Israel would fight on until an international force reaches south Lebanon -- even though no country has volunteered to send troops in the absence of a truce and a durable ceasefire agreement.

Olmert called for an international combat force to implement a U.N. resolution calling for Hizbollah to be disarmed, saying Israel had already destroyed much of the group's military power.

Soon after he spoke, one of at least 206 rockets launched by Hizbollah landed just inside the West Bank after flying further than any fired at Israel in the past three weeks.

Israeli police and Hizbollah both said it was the highest number of rockets fired into Israel on one day since the war began. The barrage, which killed one person near the northern city of Nahariya, followed a two-day lull in such attacks.

Olmert said earlier Hizbollah's infrastructure had been "entirely destroyed" in the Israeli offensive. Continued...

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