ISRAELI assault helicopters yesterday aimed for the command centre of the Iranian backed Hizbullah movement in southern Beirut in Israel's first aerial attack on the Lebanese capital since 1982. Israeli fighter jets also bombed Hizbullah bases in eastern and southern Lebanon.
The attacks, Israeli spokesmen said, were a response to the firing of Katyusha rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday which injured 36 civilians and damaged 200 homes, and to the death on Wednesday of an Israeli soldier in a Hizbullah missile attack on an army outpost in Israel's self styled security zone in southern Lebanon.
The air strikes were meant as a clear message that Israel would not tolerate attacks on its civilians. The Foreign Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, warned that there was no area in Lebanon where Hizbullah could consider itself "immune".
While army officials would not divulge details of the intended duration of the operation, Maj Gen Amiram Levin, head of the army's northern command, yesterday said the assault would be "on going".
But last night Hizbullah (Party of God) said it would retaliate for Israel's air raids by bombarding northern Israel settlements and other targets. Hizbullah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised statement. "We will shell the settlements in northern Palestine. I won't say when, whether tonight, tomorrow or any other time.
In the early hours of yesterday morning jets bombed what Israeli military sources said was a major Hizbullah "logistics centre" in the ancient Roman built town of Baalbek in the Bekaa valley.
In mid morning US made Apache assault helicopters took off from Israeli warships off the Lebanese coast and headed for the southern slums of Beirut where they fired air to ground missiles at what army sources described as Hizbullah's "nerve centre". Israeli planes also attacked Hizbullah positions in the port town of Tyre, wounding several soldiers.
The attack on Beirut and on Hizbullah positions in Syrian controlled parts of Lebanon appeared to be a message to Lebanon and Damascus to rein the Hizbullah.
While reports of growing civilian casualties reached Israel, military officials insisted that the strikes had been "surgical".
Tuesday's rocket attack sent angry residents in the rocket hit northern border town of Kiryat Shmona into the streets in protest at Mr Peres's policy of restraint. The Likud party leader, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, was cheered by local residents as he toured the town, whereas members of Mr Peres's Labour Party were jeered.