Wednesday - August 02, 2006

Shock And Awe

Israel is pushing Hezbollah back. The UN is wringing its hands. The Pope is praying. The French want no part of it. Israel attacked a hospital that wasn’t a hospital with patients inside who were Hezbollah fighters hiding rockets. And finally .... read the last paragraph below for Hezbollah’s battle plan ....

Israel Sends 10,000 Troops Into Lebanon

BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon Aug 2, 2006 (AP) — Israel pressed the first full day of a massive new ground attack, sending 10,000 troops into southern Lebanon on Wednesday and seizing five people it said were Hezbollah fighters in a dramatic airborne raid on a northeastern town. Hezbollah retaliated with its deepest strikes yet into Israel, firing a record number of more than 160 rockets.

Diplomatic efforts faltered, with France saying it will not participate in a Thursday U.N. meeting that could send troops to help monitor a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. France, which may join or even lead such a force, said it does not want to talk about sending peacekeepers until fighting halts and the U.N. Security Council agrees to a wider framework for lasting peace.

Pope Benedict XVI issued a new appeal for peace in the Middle East. He urged “the international community and those who are more directly involved in this tragedy to lay down conditions as soon as possible for a definitive political solution to the crisis.” Israeli commandos flew in by helicopter before dawn into the northern town of Baalbek, on the border with Syria, capturing five Hezbollah guerrillas and killing at least 10, said Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.

Witnesses said Israeli forces partially destroyed the Dar al-Hikma hospital in Baalbek, where chief Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal said fierce fighting raged for more than one hour. Israel has not yet released the identity of those captured. When asked by The Associated Press whether any were “big fish,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: “They are tasty fishes.”

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements to the media, said that Israeli troops captured “four or five” people, but not at the hospital. He denied they were Hezbollah fighters, saying one was a 60-year-old grocery store owner and two relatives who work in construction.

The hospital, which residents said is financed by an Iranian charity that is close to Hezbollah, was empty of patients at the time of the raid, the guerrilla group said.  Olmert said that, although the scene of the fighting is called a hospital, “there are no patients there and there is no hospital, this is a base of the Hezbollah in disguise.”

Hezbollah fought the commandos with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, while Israeli jets fired missiles at the surrounding guerrilla force, Rahal said. One of a series of air raids struck the village of Al Jamaliyeh near the hospital. A missile hit the house of the village’s mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, instantly killing his son, brother, and five other relatives.

“Where is the press? Where is the media to see this massacre? Count our dead. Count our body parts,” Jamaleddin told The Associated Press on the telephone, minutes after the missile strike.

- More on the war from ABC NEWS ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/02/2006 at 11:39 AM   
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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