Israeli warplanes attack bridges and roads

Israeli forces resumed attacks on Lebanon at daybreak today, pounding the country’s main road link to Syria with missiles and setting passenger buses on fire.

Part of Lebanon’s longest bridge collapsed, police said.

The passenger buses were in the Bekaa valley about 10 miles from the Syrian border, on the road linking Beirut and the Syrian capital of Damascus.

The strike set three buses on fire at Taanayel, but there were no casualties, police said.

Drivers abandoned the vehicles after one missile hit nearby, and then more missiles struck. The buses had dropped off in Syria after evacuating foreigners.

Up in the mountains of central Lebanon on the Beirut-Damascus highway, Israeli warplanes fired four missiles on a bridge linking two steep mountain peaks. Part of the bridge collapsed. The 1-mile-long structure has been hit several times since the fighting began.

Warplanes also attacked Hezbollah strongholds in south Beirut and in eastern Lebanon overnight.

Witnesses said one explosion was heard in south Beirut, which has become a regular target for Israeli airstrikes over the past few days.

The Arab satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera said one person had been killed in south Beirut and another wounded in the airstrike, but the report could not be immediately confirmed by security officials.

Israeli warplanes also struck a road and bridge near the southern port city of Tyre, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said.

Israeli aircraft also targeted the town of Nabi Sheet in the eastern Bekaa valley. Witnesses said strikes hit the town and overlooking hills, where Hezbollah guerrillas have been known to operate.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Fighter bombers also destroyed a bridge on the coastal highway to south Lebanon at Naameh.