Hizbullah inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli forces as they battled for a key hilltop town in southern Lebanon for a fourth day Wednesday, with at least eight soldiers reported killed. Israeli forces have reportedly faced fierce resistance.
The Israeli soldiers had been killed in the fighting for control of Bint Jbail.
Five more Israeli soldiers were wounded later Wednesday when Hizbullah fighter fired a Russian-made anti-tank missile at troops in the southern Lebanon village of Maroun Ras, medics said. Four Israelis were also wounded Wednesday, one seriously and the rest lightly, as more than 100 rockets slammed into northern Israel. Another 14 people were treated for shock.
On its part, Israel dropped leaflets on Sidon listing the names of nine Hizbullah fighters it claimed were killed in the battles. Israeli TV also broadcast footage of troops transporting corpses in body bags which the military said were the bodies of Hizbullah fighters. An Israeli air strike on Wednesday destroyed a three-storey house and buried 10 civilians, including children, under the rubble in the Lebanese border village of Yaroun, police said.
The clashes came as an international crisis meeting opened in Rome. Italian Premier Romano Prodi said the conference was a "starting point" for bringing peace and stability to Lebanon and effective security to Israel. "The determination and unity of this group is of fundamental importance for the realization of our objectives for peace and democracy in the Middle East," Prodi told senior officials from the United States, Europe and the Arab world.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended a morning meeting with Italy's foreign minister before the conference started. Later, she said there can be no return to the status quo of political uncertainty and instability in Lebanon.
"There is much work to do and everyone has a role to play," said Rice. "We all committed to dedicated and urgent action to try to bring about an end to violence that would be sustainable" and leave the Lebanese government in full control of its territory, Rice told reporters.
Apparent differences between the United States, which has strongly opposed any unconditional cease-fire, and other nations caused discussions in the Italian capital to hit a snag and forced the delay of the news conference by well over an hour.
Rice told the news conference that Syria has an obligation under an existing United Nations resolution to support "a fully sovereign Lebanon that indeed can control all the armaments in the country."
Rice told reporters: "What we agreed upon is that there should be an international force under a U.N. mandate that will have a strong and robust capability to help bring about peace, to help provide the ability for humanitarian efforts to go forward and to bring an end to the violence."
She stressed that Lebanon's PM Fuad Saniora himself has said "there must be one authority over military force" and the international community will support the Lebanese government and work with it achieving that element of a U.N. resolution.
"I think the mandate of the security forces will be discussed over the next several, several days," Rice added. "We also have asked that those meetings be held urgently so that force can be put together."
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
