At least 28 killed in continuing fighting in Lebanon

Israeli commandos landed on a southern hilltop near Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast today, fighting Hezbollah in close combat in a bid to destroy its rocket launchers, as warplanes launched fresh airstrikes across the country, killing at least 28 people.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora told visiting Arab foreign ministers that more than 40 additional people were killed in an Israeli attack on the border village of Houla.

“An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing,” he said.

Local TV stations had reported about 40 people buried under the rubble of houses flattened there, but there was no confirmation of the death toll from security officials. It was the same town where Hezbollah claimed earlier to have killed four Israeli soldiers in ground fighting.

The Israeli army said only three were moderately wounded there, and that one Israeli soldier was killed and four lightly wounded in Bint Jbail. Five Hezbollah gunmen were killed there, the army said.

Israeli raids killed at least 5 people in Tyre, at the same apartment complex Israeli commandos attacked two days earlier, witnesses and rescue workers said. Rescuers said they came under fire and were forced to flee before retrieving the bodies. An ambulance was hit by an Israeli missile as it sped away from the scene, ambulance driver Shadi Jradi said.

Israel launched another raid by helicopter today, this time on a hill overlooking Ras al-Biyada, south of Tyre, Lebanese security officials said. About 30 commandos were mired in fierce fighting with Hezbollah, and there was no word on casualties, an official said. An apartment was also raided there.

Israeli officials would not confirm the operation or comment on any casualties.

The stepped up bombardment and the commando raid came a day after Hezbollah’s rockets killed 15 Israelis.

Fighting raged at several locations today near the border where Israeli forces have thrust into Lebanon. Hezbollah engaged Israeli infantrymen attempting to advance on the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Rub Thalatheen, Houla and Dibel, the guerrillas’ TV station said. Intense shelling was reported in Naqoura and on villages surrounding Nabatiyeh. Towns along the Litani River were also hit by a constant stream of artillery.

Warplanes launched fresh airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and Lebanon’s southern and eastern regions.

The sound of eight loud explosions in less than an hour rang out across the Lebanese capital at daybreak.

Seven people were killed when a missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of Tyre, said civil defence official Youssef Khairallah. Raids hit Naqoura south of Tyre as well.

A woman and her daughter were killed in an attack near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir, security officials said. Four other people were killed in a raid on that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit.

Three air raids on the town of Ghaziyeh destroyed three buildings. At least four people were killed and 14 wounded, according to hospital officials.

In the village of Ghassaniyeh, a building collapsed on its residents, and at least six bodies were retrieved from under the rubble. Witnesses and civil defence workers at the scene said one more person was buried under the rubble, but that could not be confirmed. Two others were wounded nearby.

Five air raids struck the market town of Nabatiyeh, targeting two office buildings, a house and one of the offices of Shiite Muslim Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. No casualties were reported there or in raids on the villages of Jibsheet and Toul.

At least four explosions were heard around the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek, 63 miles north of Israel’s border, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed that it had hit several targets in the Baalbek area.

Hezbollah has many positions near Baalbek. Israeli commandos on Wednesday landed troops in the area, fought guerrillas and kidnapped several people before withdrawing. Sixteen Lebanese were killed in that raid.

Warplanes struck roads about 13 miles south of Baalbek. A large factory for construction materials was hit, and several trucks belonging to the plant were destroyed.

Jet fighters also attacked the Rashaya region farther south on the corridor linking southern regions with the Bekaa in the country’s east, the witnesses said.

A road near the Beirut border post at Masnaa on the Beirut-Damascus highway, a frequent target of attack, was hit again early today.

The raids came as Arab foreign ministers arrived in Beirut for an emergency meeting.

The latest death brought to at least 619 the number of people killed in Lebanon. Ninety-three people have been killed in Israel.

Israel’s Haaretz daily, quoting an unnamed general, reported today that Israel might hit Lebanese infrastructure and symbols of government in response to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly blasted Palestinian government buildings during a month-long offensive in Gaza.