More than 600 relatives of UN peacekeepers and other
foreigners were evacuated by ship from the southern port city of Tyre, a region
south of the Litani that has seen a ferocious pounding by Israeli warplanes and
gunboats for days. Many of the women and children had spent the night on the
beach waiting for the ship that arrived Thursday morning and took them to
Cyprus.
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Evacuees from Lebanon are welcomed after their arrival on a special
flight from Damascus at Cologne airport July 20, 2006. Three Airbus A-310
planes of the German Air Force Luftwaffe brought 500 evacuees on Thursday
from Adana, Turkey, and Damascus, Syria, to Germany. [Reuters]
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The exodus of Americans and other foreign nationals stepped up dramatically,
with ships lining up off Beirut to take thousands of families waiting at the
port out of the war zone.
A group of around 40 US Marines hit the ground in Beirut, helping in
the evacuation of hundreds of Americans to a Navy transport vessel, the
USS Nashville, offshore, the first US military deployment in Lebanon in 22 years.
More than 2,200 Americans were pulled out Thursday, twice the number a day
before.
Israeli forces resumed attacks on Beirut at daybreak on Friday, witnesses
said. One loud explosion was heard in the Lebanese capital. Al-Arabyia TV said
the strike had targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, Hezbollah's stronghold.
Israeli strikes Thursday pounded southern Beirut and villages and towns in the
Shiite heartland of the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Hezbollah, in turn, fired more than 40 rockets into northern Israel.
The clashes about a mile inside the Lebanese side of the border Thursday
evening came when an Israeli patrol sweeping for Hezbollah bunkers was ambushed
by guerillas, taking casualties. The fight rapidly expanded, with Israeli
helicopters firing missiles at targets on the ground and rescue forces storming
in.
The Israeli military said two Israeli soldiers died in the fighting and
several guerrillas were killed. Hezbollah's Al-Manar television said three
Israeli soldiers were killed but did not mention guerrilla casualties.
Two Apache attack helicopters collided in an accident northern Israel near
the Lebanon border early Friday, killing one air force officer and injuring
three others, two seriously, Israeli officials said. Al-Jazeera reported that
four soldiers were killed in the crash, but did not give a source.
The commander of Israel's air force appointed an inquiry team to determine
the cause.
Israel has stepped up its small-scale forays over the border in recent days,
seeking Hezbollah positions, rocket stores and bunkers. Each time it has faced
tough resistance from the guerrillas.
In preparation for a more powerful punch deeper into Lebanon, an Israeli
military radio station that broadcasts into the south issued what it called "a
strict warning" that Israeli forces would "act immediately" to halt Hezbollah
rocket fire.
"It will act in word and deed inside the villages of the south against these
aggressive terrorist acts. Therefore all residents of south Lebanon south of the
Litani must leave their areas immediately for their own safety," the message in
Arabic on the Al-Mashriq station said.
More than 300,000 people are believed to live south of the Litani, which
twice has been the border line for Israeli buffer zones. In 1978, Israel invaded
up to the Litani to drive back Palestinian guerrillas, withdrawing from most of
the south months later.
Israel invaded Lebanon again in a much bigger operation
in June 1982 when its forces seized parts of Beirut. It eventually carved out a
buffer zone that stopped at the Litani. That zone was reduced gradually but the
Israeli presence lasted for 18 years until 2000, when it withdrew its troops
completely from the country.
