MIDDLE EAST: At least eight Israeli soldiers were killed and many more wounded yesterday in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil during the fiercest battle so far in the Middle East conflict. The firefight left Israel reeling from its highest death toll in a single day since the conflict began two weeks ago.
Last night, the city of Tyre was hit in a major Israeli air strike, injuring at least 12 people, including six children.
And an Israeli officer was killed and three soldiers wounded in a Hizbullah attack on the southern Lebanes village of Maroun al-Ras.
In Bint Jbeil, Israeli troops ran into large numbers of heavily armed Hizbullah fighters when they tried to sweep through the town, just two-and-a-half miles from the Israeli border.
"We have got very intense fighting, house to house, room to room," a spokesman for the Israeli military said last night. He refused to give full casualty figures but said there were "many seriously injured Israelis". Reports put the number of dead and injured at 30.
Troops found a large cache of Hizbullah weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, automatic assault rifles and ammunition. The spokesman said: "This indicates they were planning on holding out much longer." He said more than 200 Hizbullah fighters had been killed since the conflict began.
Israel's northern command chief said the offensive in Lebanon was still not nearing its end. "I assume it will continue for several more weeks and in a number of weeks we will be able to declare a victory," Maj Gen Udi Adam said.
The heaviest fighting yesterday came as troops tried to capture an important hilltop at Bint Jbail. Hizbullah said its fighters had ambushed an Israeli unit that was moving from a ridge towards the town.
Israeli troops had taken some areas in Bint Jbeil, but not the whole town.
"The bodies of the soldiers remained on the ground amid the destroyed and burning vehicles," said an announcer on Hizbullah's television channel, al-Manar.
Many of the Israeli injured had to wait hours under heavy fire before they could be evacuated. Helicopters eventually flew them to hospital in Haifa.
"We knew well that we were entering a dangerous nest and the nest needs to be taken care of slowly," Maj Tzvika Golan, an Israeli spokesman, told reporters.
Before the conflict erupted two weeks ago, Bint Jbeil was a small town of about 20,000 people but one regarded by Israeli commanders as symbolically crucial for Hizbullah. Its leader, the cleric Hassan Nasrullah, made an important speech in the town in 2000, shortly after the Israeli military withdrew from southern Lebanon. Israeli officers describe it as the "terror capital".
But yesterday's fighting confirms an emerging sense within Israel that the ground battle is proving far tougher than expected. Before yesterday, 24 Israeli troops had been killed and 79 injured.
Gen Yiftah Ron-Tal, a former commander of Israeli land forces, told Israel Radio: "You can't fight a battle like that without taking losses. The question is whether the mission has been accomplished. This kind of position can't be taken without using ground troops." One armoured brigade colonel told the Jerusalem Post that the operation to capture Bint Jbeil had been expected to last between 48 and 72 hours. It has run for four days.
Last night, two Israeli missiles struck a seven-storey building in a crowded neighbourhood in Tyre, injuring 12 people including six children. Ambulance workers said there might be as many as five people buried under the rubble. The commercial and residential building was used as a Hizbullah community centre.