Hizbullah guerrillas have killed at least nine Israeli soldiers in Lebanon in fierce fighting which looks set to continue after diplomats in Rome yesterday failed to agree on calling for an immediate end to the 15-day-old war, writes Alistair Lyon in Beirut
Last night the Lebanese city of Tyre was hit by a massive Israeli air strike, while an Israeli officer was killed in a Hizbullah attack on a southern Lebanese village. A building in Tyre which housed the office of Hizbullah's top official in the south, Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, was destroyed. He was not in the building but neighbours said at least six people were wounded.
Foreign ministers at the crisis conference pledged to work urgently for a "lasting, permanent and sustainable" ceasefire but did not call for the fighting to stop now, as Lebanon and its Arab allies had demanded. They agreed that a UN- mandated international force was needed to secure the Israel-Lebanon border, urging Israel to exercise "utmost restraint" in its assault on Lebanon.
Meanwhile Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said Lebanon and the Palestinian territories faced complete destruction in the latest Middle East violence. "What is happening in Palestine is a complete destruction and it is happening in both Palestine and Lebanon," he said on a visit to Algeria.
Israel's offensive is by no means over, an Israeli general said. "Given the progress over the last two weeks, I reckon it will continue for several more weeks," Maj Gen Udi Adam, head of the northern command, told reporters.
In Rome, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has insisted that no truce can be sought unless the status quo is changed. "We have to have a plan that will actually create conditions in which we can have a ceasefire that will be sustainable."
The United States has backed Israeli demands for Hizbullah to pull back from the border and ultimately disarm.
In the latest fighting, Lebanese security sources said Hizbullah ambushed an Israeli force advancing on the town of Bint Jbeil, 4km from the frontier.
The Israeli army said eight of its soldiers were killed at Bint Jbeil and 22 wounded. Arab media had reported that as many as 13 soldiers died in the clash.
Israel's war against Hizbullah has killed at least 420 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians. At least 50 Israelis have also died.
UN secretary general Kofi Annan said Iran and Syria, both allies of Hizbullah, should be included in efforts to halt the war. Dr Rice blames Tehran and Damascus for stoking the conflict. Israel, Iran and Syria were not invited to the Rome talks, drawing a complaint from Syria's UN ambassador who said the conference should have discussed "Israeli occupation" rather than a new force for Lebanon.
Hizbullah vowed not to accept "humiliating" truce terms and to take its rocket strikes deeper into Israel. Hours later, more than 125 missiles hit the port of Haifa and other parts of northern Israel.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said an Irish Army officer in south Lebanon had warned Israel six times that Israeli air strikes threatened the lives of UN observers before the deaths of four UN observers on Tuesday. Mr Ahern yesterday called in the Israeli ambassador to express Ireland's concerns at recent developments.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is striving to limit diplomatic damage from the deaths, telling Mr Annan he was sorry, but expressing shock at the UN chief's suggestion the attack was deliberate. An angry China asked the UN Security Council yesterday to condemn the air raid, in which a Chinese observer was killed.
The others were from Finland, Austria and Canada.