[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Re: Israeli Troops: Hezbollah a Tough Enemy

  • From: "RM Danardono HADINOTO" <rm_danardono@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: ppiindia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:49:39 -0000

** Forum Nasional Indonesia PPI India Mailing List **
** Untuk bergabung dg Milis Nasional kunjungi: 
** Situs Milis: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ **
** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral 
scholarship, kunjungi 
http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com ******Israeli military officials said 
they had found "thousands" of 
Katyusha rockets and other missiles hidden in well-camouflaged 
underground bunkers but also in mosques, hospitals and schools. They 
asserted that Iran was trying to send fresh supplies of ammunition 
and rockets to Lebanon through Syria.




Israeli Forces Push Deeper in Lebanon 
               E-MailPrint Reprints Save 
 
By CRAIG S. SMITH
Published: July 23, 2006
YIRON, Israel, July 23 ? Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into 
Lebanon today as Hezbollah answered with more rocket barrages.


 
Joao Silva for The New York Times
A deserted holiday resort near a burning fuel depot outside an 
electrical power plant in the town of Jieh, south of Beirut, after 
it was attacked twice by Israeli air strikes since the start of 
hostilities. 
Two people were killed when at least 13 rockets fell on Haifa, 
Israel's third-largest city, bringing Israel's civilian death toll 
in the 12-day-old conflict to 17. 

Lebanon's civilian death toll also continued to climb, with at least 
four people killed in the country today. Three died when Israeli 
warplanes struck a minibus carrying 16 people who were fleeing the 
fighting in southern Lebanon. 

A Lebanese photographer, Layal Nejim, 23, became the first 
journalist to die in the fighting when an Israeli missile hit near 
the taxi in which she was riding in southern Lebanon, The Associated 
Press reported. Ms. Nejim worked for the Lebanese magazine Al-Jaras. 
Her taxi driver survived.

Meanwhile, The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and 
the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, were both in 
Israel today for talks in hopes of finding a way to end the 
fighting. 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to arrive in Israel 
on Monday for a private dinner with the Israeli foreign minister, 
Tzipora Livni. Ms. Rice is scheduled to meet Mr. Olmert on Tuesday 
before traveling to Ramallah in the West Bank, where she will meet 
the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. 

Ms. Rice then plans to go to Rome for an international conference on 
the Middle Eastern conflict. 

The Israeli defense minister, Amir Peretz, said today that Israel 
would accept a NATO-led international force to keep the peace along 
its northern border.

He reiterated that the current offensive was not the start of a full-
scale invasion of Lebanon and that Israel's attacks would remain 
confined to well-defined raids.

"The army's ground operation in Lebanon is focused on limited 
entrances, and we are not talking about an invasion of Lebanon," Mr. 
Peretz told the Israeli cabinet. 

He said the military operations would complement "broad 
international activity to complete the process" of subduing 
Hezbollah and restoring security along Israel's northern border. 

Brig. Gen. Shuki Shachar, chief of staff of the Israeli Army's 
Northern Command, said that some ground forces had reached "the 
depths" of Lebanon while at least three Lebanese villages ? Maroun 
al-Ras in the east and Marwahin and Aita al-Shaab in the West ? were 
now under Israeli control along the border with Israel.

Israel has not said how many ground troops it now has in Lebanon, 
but the Israeli news media reported today that the number was now in 
the thousands.

"We try to hit the enemy in every place we can identify him," 
General Shachar said, adding that Hezbollah remained strong in 
Lebanon's north, its south and its eastern Bekka valley.

Tens of thousands of those people have fled north to the southern 
Lebanese port of Sidon, which was attacked for the first time in the 
current conflict by Israeli warplanes today. Four people were 
wounded in the attack, which targeted a Hezbollah-related religious 
center.

Israeli warplanes and helicopters attacked Hezbollah positions in 
and around the eastern Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek and bombed a 
textile factory in the border town of al-Manara. One person was 
killed and two wounded in that attack, The Associated Press reported.

General Shacher defended the Lebanese civilian death toll, saying it 
was light considering that Israel fighter aircraft and attack 
helicopters have made 1,500 flights over Lebanon and that Israel has 
fired more than 20,000 artillery rounds into the country in the last 
12 days.

"This is a war and in war sometimes there are mistakes," General 
Shacher said, noting that it is particularly difficult to avoid 
civilian casualties when fighting a guerilla force mixed in an 
indigenous population. 

Israel has been warning the civilian population to living south of 
the Litani River in Lebanon to move north in order to avoid getting 
caught in the ground assault. "The reason for the evacuation of the 
population is to leave us open space and an open area to hit 
military and terrorist targets and not to deal with the problem of 
civilians," Gen. Shachar said.

Israeli military officials said they had found "thousands" of 
Katyusha rockets and other missiles hidden in well-camouflaged 
underground bunkers but also in mosques, hospitals and schools. They 
asserted that Iran was trying to send fresh supplies of ammunition 
and rockets to Lebanon through Syria.

Israeli troops in Maroun al-Ras are now fighting Hezbollah forces in 
the larger town of Bint Jabel, a few miles deeper into the country. 

An Italian soldier, Capt. Roberto Punzo, working with the United 
Nations observer team in southern Lebanon, was wounded by Hezbollah 
gunfire. He was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Haifa.

Meanwhile, the missiles continued to fall close to the border. The 
northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona was engulfed in dense white 
smoke by brush fires started by rockets, most of which fall in 
forests and fields of this sparsely populated area. Yellow crop-
dusters circled overhead dropping red fire suppressant. 

The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired nearly 90 rockets on 
northern Israel by this afternoon and was showing no slackening of 
the pace in recent days. 

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, fired a dozen 
smaller Qassam rockets into southern Israel today without causing 
serious damage. The attacks suggested that the Palestinian Authority 
had failed in its reported attempt to broker a unilateral cease-fire 
among the militants. 

The United Nations' top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, toured 
the destruction in Beirut, Lebanon, and said that it would take 
billions of dollars to repair damage. 

Mr. Egeland was expected to travel later to Israel to help 
coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid. As many as 600,000 
people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the World 
Health Organization.

The Israeli military announced that humanitarian aid could enter 
Lebanon through Beirut's port and from there would be transferred to 
regional aid centers across Lebanon, in coordination with its 
forces. It did not specify how aid would reach the south where the 
fighting has been the heaviest and the aid is most needed.

The Lebanese foreign minister, Fawzi Salloukh, who maintains strong 
ties to Hezbollah, said today that the two Israeli soldiers whose 
kidnapping set off the Lebanon conflict are in good health. A 
Lebanese government spokesman said the prisoners were still with 
Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel today accused much of the 
international news media of bias in its reporting of the war, 
complaining that the "murderous viciousness" of Hezbollah was not 
being portrayed. "A twisted image is presented, where the victim is 
presented as an aggressor," he said.



--- In ppiindia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Ambon" <sea@...> wrote:
>
> http://news.netster.com/story.asp?id=D8J1TKCG0
> 
>       Israeli Troops: Hezbollah a Tough Enemy   
> 
> 
>       4:20 PM EST July 23, 2006
>       The Associated Press 
>       ON THE ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER 
>       Israeli soldiers returning from the front in Lebanon talk of 
battling an intelligent, well-prepared and ruthless guerrilla army 
whose fighters don't seem to fear death.
> 
>       The troops describe Hezbollah guerrillas hiding among 
civilians and in underground bunkers two or three stories deep _ 
evidence, they say, that Hezbollah has been planning this battle for 
many years.
> 
>       "It's hard to beat them," one soldier said. "They're not 
afraid of anything."
> 
>       The soldiers, most of whom declined to give their names 
under orders from superiors, described exchanges of gunfire in 
between houses on village streets, with Hezbollah guerrillas 
sometimes popping out of bushes to fire Kalashnikovs, rocket-
propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles.
> 
>       The troops' comments underscored the enormous challenges 
faced by Israel as it seeks to neutralize Hezbollah, which captured 
two Israeli soldiers in a brazen cross-border raid on July 12, 
provoking a fierce Israeli response.
> 
>       Despite Israel's enormous firepower that it says has already 
killed about 100 Hezbollah fighters, some military analysts say the 
war isn't going particularly well for the Jewish state, which is 
encountering tougher than expected resistance. It has been unable to 
push the guerrillas back significantly or stop hundreds of their 
rockets from slamming into northern Israel.
> 
>       For the past few days Israel has been fighting for control 
of the tiny southern Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, located on a 
hilltop less than 500 yards across the border. The army said it had 
a significant presence in the village, but gunfire and the blasts of 
artillery shells could still be heard on Sunday as tanks and 
helicopters pounded positions inside.
> 
>       Officers at the scene confirmed there was still fighting to 
do.
> 
>       "They're not fighting like we thought they would," one 
soldier said. "They're fighting harder. They're good on their own 
ground."
> 
>       One soldier said the guerrillas wore olive green army 
uniforms "to confuse us" because Israelis wear the same. Others said 
Hezbollah hid underground in reinforced bunkers until they thought 
it safe to come out and attack. The Israelis prefer to stay away 
from those bunkers, the soldiers said, instead calling in 
coordinates so forces massed behind the border can hit them with 
guided missiles.
> 
>       "It will take the summer to beat them," said Michael 
Sidorenko, 21, resting in the shade of a road sign with other combat 
troops. On the hills behind him, loud gunfire and the constant thud 
of explosions could be heard.
> 
>       "They're not normal soldiers, you know," Sidorenko 
said. "They're guerrillas. They're very smart."
> 
>       Sidorenko said he saw Hezbollah fighters firing from behind 
Lebanese civilians.
> 
>       "That's why our soldiers are getting killed," he said.
> 
>       Of the 19 soldiers killed so far since fighting began, five 
have died trying to gain control of Maroun al-Ras.
> 
>       To avoid more deaths, Israel has decided to limit its ground 
incursions to pinpoint operations near the border _ a policy that 
military analysts say may well be insufficient to achieve Israel's 
goal of pushing Hezbollah back and destroying its ability to attack 
Israel.
> 
>       Not every soldier described Hezbollah as fierce. One said 
that when Israeli troops show up in vehicles, the guerrillas "run 
like chickens."
> 
>       Others wondered why Hezbollah had not yet attacked the 
nearly two-dozen army vehicles and hundreds of troops camped out in 
easy striking range below the hill on which Maroun al-Ras sits.
> 
>       Most believed the guerrillas would rather aim their rockets 
at major Israeli population centers such as Haifa.
> 
>       A core group of a few hundred Israeli soldiers, including 
paratroopers, have carried out most of the fighting in Maroun al-
Ras. Sunday's action mainly involved Israelis firing artillery 
rounds onto spots on the hill, and armored carriers bringing 
supplies to the troops.
> 
>       One young man said the delivery duty can be harrowing 
because you never know where and when the next round of fire will 
hit.
> 
>       "It's crazy over there," said Alon Williams, 20, a bright-
eyed tank driver who immigrated from South Africa.
> 
>       The soldiers said Hezbollah has refrained from attacking 
them as they approached Maroun al-Ras in tanks and armored personnel 
carriers, preferring instead to let Israelis reach the village and 
then attack them there.
> 
>       The fighting, they said, showed the guerrillas had used the 
six years since Israel withdrew from Lebanon to build bunkers, 
stockpile weapons and study tactics.
> 
>       "They have good knowledge about where we are, what we're 
doing, what kinds of weapons we have," Sidorenko said.
> 
>       But it's better to fight them now than later, when they'd be 
even stronger, he said.
>      
>      
> 
>      
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>







------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups.  See the new email design.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/TISQkA/hOaOAA/yQLSAA/BRUplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

***************************************************************************
Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg 
Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia
***************************************************************************
__________________________________________________________________________
Mohon Perhatian:

1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik)
2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari.
3. Reading only, http://dear.to/ppi 
4. Satu email perhari: ppiindia-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
5. No-email/web only: ppiindia-nomail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
6. kembali menerima email: ppiindia-normal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ppiindia-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 


** Forum Nasional Indonesia PPI India Mailing List **
** Untuk bergabung dg Milis Nasional kunjungi: 
** Situs Milis: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ **
** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral 
scholarship, kunjungi 
http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com **

Other related posts:

  • » [nasional_list] [ppiindia] Re: Israeli Troops: Hezbollah a Tough Enemy