Fighting Intensifies as Israel Pushes Farther Into Lebanon

MISGAV AM, Israel —  Thousands of Israeli troops backed by armor advanced deeper into Lebanon on Tuesday, crossing the Litani River in the south as a smaller force mounted an operation in the Bekaa Valley between Beirut and Syria.

The ground offensive at least 12 miles across the border, by far the deepest such penetration in a campaign that began three weeks ago, was undertaken by the largest Israeli force assembled inside Lebanon since the outbreak of the fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas.

Clashing repeatedly with the Islamist militants and pounding southern Lebanese villages with renewed airstrikes, the Israelis undertook the broad push as a 48-hour slowdown in air attacks ended early today.

In the east-central Bekaa Valley, Israeli forces landed by helicopter near Baalbek, an ancient Roman city and headquarters of Hezbollah about 60 miles northeast of the Israeli ground advance. Hezbollah’s Al Manar television said militants were battling an Israeli unit outside the Dar al Hikma Hospital near the town.

The Israeli military initially refused to comment but later said that it had captured several Hezbollah members in the Baalbek fighting and that all of its soldiers had returned safely to base. It reported an unspecified number of Hezbollah casualties.

Lebanese security sources said that at least 10 civilians were killed in an airstrike in the area, Reuters news agency reported.

The intensified combat took place while diplomatic efforts to stop the bloodshed faltered in the United States and Europe, humanitarian aid failed to reach many devastated Lebanese towns, and the Israeli government pledged to press ahead with a military campaign one Cabinet minister predicted would last 10 to 14 more days.

At least three Israeli troops were killed Tuesday. Israeli officials said ground forces killed at least 20 Hezbollah militants during the latest clashes, on top of the 250 or so slain in earlier battles. Hezbollah disputes the figures.

“Every additional day [of fighting] is a day that erodes the power of this cruel enemy,” Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday evening. “Every additional day, the Israeli army reduces their ability to fire, and also their ability to strike in the future.”

Throughout southern Lebanon, including the coastal city of Tyre, Israel again dropped fliers from the sky. “The terrible terrorist acts are coming from your areas,” the handbills say, and the Israeli army “will act with all its force against the terrorist guerrillas, starting at this moment.”

Israeli infantry crossed the Litani River in several spots and reached the northern edge of what Israel held as a buffer zone for 18 years until withdrawing in 2000, said Brig. Gen. Shuki Shihrur, deputy commander of the northern command. Shihrur said his forces were in control of positions along the waterway, which runs roughly parallel to the border, through air and artillery power. In some areas, he said, ground forces had sped past settled areas to reach the river and beyond in a bid to prevent Hezbollah from bringing in new fighters and arms.

The goal of the ground offensive was not to conquer towns but to work southward from the river, and north from the border, to clear out Hezbollah and weaken the group before any international peacekeeping force could be deployed in southern Lebanon, Shihrur said.

He estimated troop strength at the equivalent of six brigades, which, according to estimates, could amount to 10,000 or more soldiers. The force, believed to be at least twice as large as any previously used in this conflict, includes armored and engineering units, the battle-seasoned Golani Brigade and paratroopers.

“The purpose of the mission is to control area, to hold terrain around, sometimes to bypass the built-up area and to continue north,” Shihrur told reporters during a briefing Tuesday night near the border.

The intensified clashes came hours after Israel’s “security Cabinet,” made up of military officials and other senior advisors to Olmert, approved a widening of Israel’s ground offensive. The fighting was triggered when Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a July 12 border raid.

“I estimate the time required to complete the job will take around 10 days to two weeks,” Cabinet minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel’s Army Radio.

As they pushed north, Israeli forces encountered stiff resistance from militants in several pockets along a 25-mile swath.

The most intense clashes were reported in the village of Aita Shaab, about five miles west of where fighting was centered last week. One officer and two soldiers were killed, the military said, and at least 25 soldiers were injured.

Fighting also raged around Maroun el Ras, a site of earlier clashes, the army said. At the other end of the front, near the Israeli communities of Misgav Am and Metulla, the army focused on villages that Hezbollah has used for launching Katyusha rockets over the border into communities in the upper Galilee, such as Kiryat Shemona.

The main target of the Israeli operations appeared to be Taibe, which straddles a ridge about three miles from Misgav Am.

Thick plumes of smoke and dust could be seen rising from the dense jumble of concrete apartment buildings with each new round of Israeli artillery fire. There were no obvious signs of movement by Israeli troops or Hezbollah fighters, nor any sign of civilians.

The Lebanese village of Adessa, next to the border below the ridge that lends Misgav Am a commanding view of southern Lebanon, offered a similarly still tableau. No one was on the streets, and the houses appeared abandoned. A single Hezbollah flag fluttered in front of one apartment building.

Israeli military officials have said publicly that they hope to create a 1.2-mile-thick band in southern Lebanon that will be free of Hezbollah fighters. At least 15,000 army reservists have been mobilized, offering Israel a reservoir of troop strength for a more massive incursion.

The ground combat came amid a relative lull in airstrikes, part of a 48-hour suspension that began early Monday. Israel agreed to the measure under intense U.S. pressure after an Israeli bomb killed nearly 60 civilians, most of them children, in the southern Lebanese town of Qana.

By early evening Tuesday, the Israeli military reported having carried out a dozen airstrikes targeting what it said were mainly rocket launchers and weapons caches.

Hezbollah fired 10 short-range Katyusha rockets and four mortar shells into northern Israel on Tuesday, the army said -- down from as many as 150 such strikes a day during much of the 21-day-old conflict.

The reprieve from Israeli bombings was intended to allow humanitarian workers to reach besieged villages. But the halt was only partially successful, aid agencies said.

United Nations relief agencies had planned to send convoys of water, food and medical supplies to the war-ravaged towns of Naqoura, Rumaysh and Tibnin. But U.N. spokesman Khaled Mansour said Israeli authorities approved only the trip to Tibnin.

“They denied us the green light for the other convoys,” Mansour said. “As a result, we were not able to send out 12 large trucks containing badly needed supplies for the people who are there.”

However, Israel temporarily lifted its blockade of the Lebanese coast to let in two oil tankers to supply fuel-starved power plants, said Mohammed Safadi, Lebanon’s minister of public works and transportation.

The easing of the blockade came only 24 hours before the power plants’ supply would have been exhausted, threatening to darken the country and cut supplies to hospitals and other crucial facilities, Safadi said.

In the courtyard of a high school in the southern Lebanese city of Marjayoun, where 150 people were huddled for shelter, Khalil Murad, 34, accepted a box of food and cooking supplies from MercyCorps, an international relief organization. Murad moved into a second-floor classroom with his wife and three children after his home in the nearby village of Matouroun was destroyed by bombs 11 days earlier.

“We have no money, no school, no house. We have nothing,” Murad said.

There was little progress to report, meanwhile, in diplomatic efforts to end the fighting.

“An immediate cease-fire is something that at this point doesn’t seem to be in the cards,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday.

At the U.N. in New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan was forced to postpone a meeting to discuss an international peacekeeping force for the region, and he urged the five Security Council countries with veto power, including the U.S., to put aside their differences in the interest of resolving the crisis.

Much of the stalemate appeared to be between the United States and France, the only Security Council member that has said it would contribute troops to an eventual stabilization force for Lebanon. But the French want a cessation of hostilities as quickly as possible, followed by a negotiated cease-fire and only then deployment of the peacekeeping force. The Bush administration wants a broad political agreement and a force ready to be deployed without insisting on a cease-fire.

The concern is that if Hezbollah was still armed, the international force would be caught in a position of having to disarm the group, said a Western diplomat close to the discussions. Neither the French nor any other potential troop contributor wants to be put in that position.

“If the Israelis can’t disarm them, I don’t know anybody who can,” the diplomat said.

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Times staff writers Carolyn Cole in southern Lebanon, Laura King in Jerusalem, Alissa J. Rubin at the United Nations, Megan K. Stack in Tyre, Rone Tempest in Beirut, Tyler Marshall in Washington and Tracy Wilkinson in Rome contributed to this report.

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Battlefront expands

Lebanon

Israeli infantry, armor and paratroopers attack along a 25-mile stretch of the border area, the widest front since fighting started three weeks ago. Some ground elements advance past the Litani River, reaching the outer edge of a buffer zone Israel controlled before it withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. Israeli airstrikes target rocket launchers and other weapons, as well as the Qaa-Homs road to Syria. Israel says it captured several Hezbollah militants in an operation near Baalbek, near the Syrian border.

Looking ahead

Israel says it will resume a full schedule of air attacks as its 48-hour partial suspension ends early today. Vice Premier Shimon Peres says the campaign against Hezbollah may last weeks, despite calls for an immediate cease-fire. The Israeli army warns Lebanese living immediately north of the Litani River to leave.

Israel

Hezbollah fires 10 rockets and four mortar shells into northern Israel in another comparatively light day of attacks. Unlike 1982, when Israel’s invasion of Lebanon sparked widespread demonstrations, the current fighting seems to have the support of Israeli civilians. A poll released Tuesday shows 80% support the way the military is conducting the fighting; 74% give Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government high marks.

Diplomacy

An aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says Egypt has resumed its mediation effort between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman says he cannot confirm that, and a Hamas spokesman denies that the talks are taking place. U.N. officials say nations willing to contribute troops to a peacekeeping force in Lebanon will meet Thursday.

Humanitarian concerns

Convoys seeking to reach southern Lebanon are stuck in Beirut, unable to deliver aid because of battle-damaged roads, traffic jams and the lack of security. Some aid has been reaching the country, however, through the Beirut airport, the port of Tyre and overland from Syria. Israel lifts its blockade of Lebanese ports, permitting tankers to deliver oil for power plants. Syria agrees to supply gasoline to Lebanon to compensate for wartime shortages.

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Sources: The Associated Press, Reuters, BBC, Times reporting

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