Hezbollah vows ‘open war’ on Israel

ISRAEL bombed the home of Hezbollah’s leader in Beirut yesterday as part of a widening assault in Lebanon since Shi’ite fighters captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.

Hezbollah said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was safe. He was later quoted on television as vowing “open war” on Israel.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, Lebanon accused Israel of launching “a widespread barbaric aggression” aimed at bringing the small Middle East nation to its knees and urged the international community to end the military offensive.

Israeli air strikes destroyed Mr Nasrallah’s apartment building and a main Hezbollah office in southern Beirut, Hezbollah said.

It said Mr Nasrallah and his family were not hurt in the raids.

“You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war,” Mr Nasrallah said, addressing Israelis on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV.

The message, broadcast shortly after the attack on his home, did not refer to it, and there was confusion as to whether the message was a phone call broadcast live or a prerecorded audiotape.

He said an Israeli navy ship was ablaze off the coast of Beirut. Lebanese security sources said two rockets had hit it. Israeli TV said the ship had been only lightly damaged.

The Israeli army said warplanes attacked Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, but a spokeswoman would not say if it was an attempt to kill Mr Nasrallah.

“We targeted by air the headquarters of Hezbollah.

“We attacked two structures that are used by the leadership of Hezbollah,” she said, adding that civilians had been warned in advance to leave the area.

Israel also attacked many Lebanese civilian installations in the third day of its campaign to force the release of the two Israeli soldiers and halt cross-border rocket strikes.

The assault has drawn mounting international criticism but the White House said US President George W Bush would not press Israel to halt its military operation.

Asked whether Mr Bush had agreed to a request from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that he rein in the Israelis, White House spokesman Tony Snow said: “No. The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel.”

Meanwhile, at an emergency UN Security Council meeting requested by Lebanon, special envoy Nouhad Mahmoud warned that Israel’s destruction of vital bridges, roads and buildings and the killing and maiming of hundreds of Lebanese civilians “will not resolve the problem, but will further complicate it”.

“The Security Council meets today in the shadow of a widespread barbaric aggression waged by Israel at this very moment against my nation,” he said.

“What Israel is undertaking is an act of aggression and devastation aimed at bringing Lebanon to its knees and subverting it by any means.”

Mr Mahmoud urged the Security Council to establish a ceasefire and to end the air and sea blockade of Lebanon imposed by Israel.

Hezbollah, which wants to trade its captives for prisoners held in Israel, fired more rockets across the frontier, killing an Israeli woman and child.

Israeli aircraft rocketed runways at Beirut’s international airport and bombed a flyover just to the south, witnesses said.

The airport has been shut since runways and fuel tanks were hit on Thursday.

Israeli warplanes blasted the main Beirut-Damascus highway overnight, tightening an air, sea and land blockade of Lebanon, and bombed targets in Beirut’s teeming Shi’ite Muslim suburbs, killing three people and wounding 40, security sources said.

An air strike in southern Beirut’s Haret Hreik district targeted Hezbollah’s radio station, witnesses said. One person was wounded.

Air strikes in south Lebanon killed five more people. Their deaths brought to more than 70 the number of people, almost all civilians, killed in Lebanon in the past three days, police said. More than 200 people have been wounded.

Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel have killed at least 10 Israelis and wounded more than 150.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said the rocket salvos “cannot and will not be allowed to continue”.

Mr Olmert agreed in a phone call with UN chief Kofi Annan to allow UN mediation for a ceasefire — but only if the terms for the truce included the return of the soldiers and the disarming of the guerrillas, an official close to the premier said.