So The Middle East Just Exploded....

[TheMan5952]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast/index.html

Hezbollah rockets strike Israeli port

Thursday, July 13, 2006; Posted: 1:27 p.m. EDT (17:27 GMT)

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Two rockets struck the northern Israeli port of Haifa Thursday as the crisis over the abduction of two Israeli soldiers deepened.

The missiles were fired from inside Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said, in a sharp escalation of attacks launched by Hezbollah guerrillas.

The attack on the city of 280,000 was the first time Hezbollah rockets have hit so deeply into Israeli territory.

Ambulance services said no one was hurt in the attack, which had been threatened by Hezbollah.

The firing came hours after Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut's international airport and its navy began a blockade of Lebanon's ports.

Hundreds of targets from the border north to the capital were attacked, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Hezbollah guerrillas earlier fired scores of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel in the most intense bombardment in years.

Some 45 people and two soldiers have been killed inside Lebanon since Wednesday, the country's health ministry said, while the rocket attacks killed at least one woman in Israel.

Lebanon also said 103 people were hurt by the Israeli attacks, The Associated Press reported, while the IDF said 90 people had been injured by the rockets hitting Israel.

One rocket attack on the northern Israeli town of Nahariya on Thursday hit a group of journalists, the AP said.

Both Israel and Lebanon have said the violence amounts to "acts of war."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday's attacks by Hezbollah when guerrillas killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two more were an "act of war."

Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat called Israel's retaliatory attack on Beirut airport a "general act of war," saying the strikes had nothing to do with Hezbollah but were instead an attack against the country's "economic interests," especially its tourism industry.

Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport was forced to close after Israeli fighter jets hit all three of its runways, leaving huge craters that made them unusable. All flights have been diverted. (Airport map)

Two other Lebanese airports were attacked Thursday morning, the IDF said.

The Israeli military gave no details, but Lebanese army sources said that the Rayak Air Base in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border had been hit as well as a small military airport in Qulayaat in northern Lebanon.

Israel said it targeted the international airport in the capital's suburbs because it was a transfer point for weapons and supplies to Hezbollah, the militant group that captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in raids this week.

Israeli warships were stationed off all of Lebanon's ports to enforce the naval blockade, Reuters news agency reported.

Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi called for a comprehensive cease-fire, saying the Lebanese government had nothing to do with the Hezbollah attacks.

After Israel's airport strike, planes began dropping leaflets warning residents of an impending attack on an area of southern Beirut where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is believed to live. (Watch initial reports on the runway bombings -- 6:00)

Israel: 'We mean business'

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he fears a "regional war is mounting" with Israel's military campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza, where forces were deployed after last month's capture of an Israeli soldier.

"This is not our interest and will not bring peace and stability to the region," Abbas said, referring to "this [israeli] aggression."

President Bush said all countries had a right to defend themselves but warned Israel to take care not to "weaken" Lebanon's government.

Bush also stressed during a visit to Germany that Syria "needs to be held to account."

Hezbollah enjoys substantial backing from Syria and Iran and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel. The group holds posts in Lebanon's government.

Israeli Security Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog said: "We are taking strong measures so that it will be clear to the Lebanese people and government ... that we mean business."

The United Nations will send a team to the Middle East to urge both sides to use restraint, a spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday.

Captives named

Israeli airstrikes were aimed at targets used by Hezbollah for storing weapons, the IDF said.

Warplanes also hit al-Manar television station because Hezbollah uses it to incite and recruit activists, the IDF said. A broadcast tower was destroyed and three people injured, but the station was able to continue broadcasting, al-Manar editor Ibrahim Moussawi said.

Israel's Cabinet authorized a "severe and harsh" response to the abduction of the two soldiers, named Thursday as Ehud Goldvasser, 31, from Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, from the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Motzkin.

Hezbollah called for a prisoner exchange but, as in Gaza, Israel has rejected the call.

Hezbollah chief Nasrallah told reporters that seizing the soldiers was "our natural, only and logical right" to win freedom for Hezbollah prisoners held by Israel.

Nasrallah said the two soldiers had been taken to a place "far, far away" and that an Israeli military campaign would not win their release.

More than 70 Katyusha rockets have hit Israel in the past 24 hours, the IDF said.

Missiles critically injured one person and hurt at least 10 others in Safed, about 13 miles (20 kilometers) from the Lebanese border, which local officials said not been hit by Hezbollah rockets since 1972. (Watch the rocket's explosion and town chaos -- 1:45)

Also in northern Israel, a woman was killed and 15 people hurt in a rocket attack in Nahariya, and at least 38 people were injured when rockets hit the Arab village of Carmiel, Israeli ambulance services said.

[Oreo931]

Go israel!!!

I am so sick of this dirty arab bullshit where they blow up innocent people, regardless of age. I am sick of dirty arabs kidnapping innocent soldiers and religious students and shooting them in the head then leaving them to rot on the side of the road...

My favorite statement made so far by the head of the israeli military "If Lebanon doesnt release the two soldiers they kidnapped, we will make it look like it did 20 years ago"

I am just going to grab a bag of popcorn and watch israel blow the shit out of all the uncivilized terorist countries...Its funny, such a small state has the most advanced military in the world.

I just hope more innocent people stop getting killed.

[javadoc]

Nuke 'em... build a Disneyland Mid-East on top of the rubble.

[POOKDIZZLE]

Gotta love the gas prices due to all of this $3.25/ gallon or 93 octane

Edited July 13, 2006 by POOKDOG

[javadoc]

Gotta love the gas prices due to all of this $3.25/ gallon or 93 octane

I absofuckinglutely LOVE $75/bbl prices. Can I hear $100?!?!?!?

[fastboy]

I absofuckinglutely LOVE $75/bbl prices. Can I hear $100?!?!?!?

CHA-CHING! goodbye mortgage!!!

sI say let them fight it out... I wouldn't want to fuck around with Israel.

[javadoc]

CHA-CHING! goodbye mortgage!!!

You said it, brotha from a differen' motha.

[Black95-850T5R]

Go israel!!!

I am so sick of this dirty arab I'm dumb where they blow up innocent people, regardless of age. I am sick of dirty arabs kidnapping innocent soldiers and religious students and shooting them in the head then leaving them to rot on the side of the road...

My favorite statement made so far by the head of the israeli military "If Lebanon doesnt release the two soldiers they kidnapped, we will make it look like it did 20 years ago"

I am just going to grab a bag of popcorn and watch israel blow the stuff out of all the uncivilized terorist countries...Its funny, such a small state has the most advanced military in the world.

I just hope more innocent people stop getting killed.

I think you got it backwards DUMBSHIT!!

They kidnapped 2 soldiers to force israel release the THOUSANDS of Lebanese officials in israeli prisons. In return, israel kills 47 CIVILIANS.

If you’re really that angry at the “uncivilized terrorist countries”, maybe you should go fight for your country coward.

And thank the US for your military forces tard.

Edited July 13, 2006 by Black95-850T5R

[RAzOR]

Israel should just keep Lebanon. I say Imperialism is way overdue. Not just war for war's sake but good old fashion conquering, occupying, owning, and smiting resistance.

It seems that death is the only response radical Islamic terrorists will accept. They never say "quit", to we should say quite simply, "then you, all of those who help you, encourage you, and the unlucky ones near you- will die."

[RAzOR]

I think you got it backwards DUMBSHIT!!

They kidnapped 2 soldiers to force israel release the THOUSANDS of Lebanese officials in israeli prisons. In return, israel kills 47 CIVILIANS.

If you're really that angry at the "uncivilized terrorist countries", maybe you should go fight for your country coward.

And thank the US for your military forces tard.

ISRAEL does not blow up weddings.

ISRAEL does not blow up busses

ISRAEL does not behead infidels.

And if they do, it's an accident, or their cowardly target chose to surround himself 24/7 with people willing to do so and Israel had no choice.

Hezbollah does blow up weddings

Hezbollah does blow up busses

Hezbollah does behead infidels

If Hezbollah doesn't it means Israeli security forces stopped them.

IF Israel takes over the world, we have a democracy with freedom of religeon and woman drivers.

IF Hezbollah, Al Qaida, or Hamas takes over the world, we have a Theocracy, with harsh Islamic law and forced Islam or death, and women in Chadours.

My gun points with the Israeli ones.

And Hezbollah started this. They led the attack, captured two soldiers and blew up eight soldiers who came after them. So you think it's OK they killed eight soldiers since they were just trying to pick up a few bargaining chips for a prisoner swap? YOU are the dumbsh!t.

They are reaping the whirlwind. I hope they get annihilated.

Thank God Israel and the West have superior EVERYTHING in this war. It is only by the good graces, the beliefs, values, moralities, and the grotesquely abused compassion UNIQUE to Western civilization that that whole area hasn't been turned into a glass-top parking lot. We wouldn't have to kill one soldier to vaporize the entire problem in 30 minutes. I don't think if Al Qaida had the nukes and we were running around with AK-47's and converted F-150s that this "reverse-scenario", nor us, would exist for long.

Edited July 13, 2006 by RAzOR

[Black95-850T5R]

ISRAEL does not blow up weddings.

ISRAEL does not blow up busses

ISRAEL does not behead infidels.

And if they do, it's an accident, or their cowardly target chose to surround himself 24/7 with people willing to do so and Israel had no choice.

Hezbollah does blow up weddings

Hezbollah does blow up busses

Hezbollah does behead infidels (well Al Qaida, but who can tell)

If Hezbollah doesn't it means Israeli security forces stopped them.

IF Israel takes over the world, we have a democracy with freedom of religeon and woman drivers

IF Hezbollah, Al Qaida, or Hamas takes over the world, we have a Theocracy, with Shira, and women in Chadours.

My gun points with the Israeli ones.

And Hezbollah started this The led an attack, captured two soldiers and blew up eight soldiers who came after them. They are reaping the whirlwind. I hope they get annihalated.

you live billion miles away and watch cnn and think you know it all. Your post is full of bull and not related to the topic of this thread, so I'm not going to argue with you.

And Hezbollah started this. They led the attack, captured two soldiers and blew up eight soldiers who came after them. So you think it's OK they killed eight soldiers since they were just trying to pick up a few bargaining chips for a prisoner swap? YOU are the dumbsh!t.

Where did I say it's OK? Why kill civilians??? go for hezbollah if you want to retaliate back.

Edited July 14, 2006 by Black95-850T5R

[RAzOR]

you live billion miles away and watch cnn and think you know it all. Your post is full of bull and not related to the topic of this thread, so I'm not going to argue with you.

Where did I say it's OK? Why kill civilians??? go for hezbollah if you want to retaliate back.

They are. Unfortunately, civilians will die. It happens. It's war. If Hezbollah hadn't done what it did, those 47 civilians would be alive today.

There is nothing to argue. Nothing I have said is false and you know it. The finger of blame is on Hezbollah. I HOPE THE LEBANESE WILL GET THEIR COUNTRY BACK FROM SYRIA AND HEZBOLLAH. Maybe you don't about that, I do.

The Middle East countries needs to grow up, face reality, and stop blaming Israel for every single problem and fix what is truly wrong- radical islam, corruption, and dictatorships.

Edited July 14, 2006 by RAzOR

[Che'_Moderator]

My gun points with the Israeli ones.

You're in PRK. They wont give you a gun.

Man the ban hammer is giving me a blister.

[RAzOR]

You're in PRK. They wont give you a gun.

Man the ban hammer is giving me a blister.

"People's Republic of Korea" would look better than "Glendale, CA"

[Black95-850T5R]

They are. Unfortunately, civilians will die. It happens. It's war. If Hezbollah hadn't done what it did, those 47 civilians would be alive today.

There is nothing to argue. Nothing I have said is false and you know it. The finger of blame is on Hezbollah. I HOPE THE LEBANESE WILL GET THEIR COUNTRY BACK FROM SYRIA AND HEZBOLLAH. Maybe you don't about that, I do.

The Middle East countries needs to grow up, face reality, and stop blaming Israel for every single problem and fix what is truly wrong- radical islam, corruption, and dictatorships.

israel is a bunch of hypocritical cowards who are taking a land that's not theirs. Get the monkey off of the ME and everything will be fine<<fact.