Israel raids Lebanese villages, bombards south

Israel raided Hizbollah weapons caches in Lebanese villages close to the border and bombarded southern Lebanon yesterday, but said it planned no full-scale invasion for now.

Thousands of Lebanese civilians fled north fearing Israel will invade Lebanon and expand an 11-day-old war which has killed 351 people, mostly civilians.

Resisting growing calls for a ceasefire, the United States stressed the need to tackle what it sees as the root cause of the conflict - Hizbollah's armed presence on Israel's border and the role of its allies, Syria and Iran.

"Resolving the crisis demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that support it," US President George W. Bush said in a radio address yesterday, one day before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to head to Israel.

An Israeli army spokesman said the army was operating one or two kilometres inside Lebanon.

Troops backed by around a dozen tanks and armoured vehicles were in the village of Maroun al-Ras, scene of intense battles earlier this week, where they found Hizbollah bunkers and weapons stores, the spokesman said.

"It will probably widen, but we are still looking at limited operations," he said. "We're not talking about massive forces going inside at this point."

Israeli forces had urged residents of 14 villages in south Lebanon to leave by 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) ahead of more air raids. Israel has been building up its forces at the border and has called up 3,000 reserves. Defence Minister Amir Peretz has talked of a possible land offensive to halt rocket attacks that have killed 15 Israeli civilians in the past 11 days.

But Israel is wary of mounting another invasion, only six years after it ended a costly 22-year occupation of the south. Already, 19 soldiers have been killed in the latest conflict.

Israeli air raids struck transmission stations used by several Lebanese television channels, including Hizbollah's al-Manar, and a mobile telephone mast in Christian areas north of Beirut, cutting mobile phone services in northern Lebanon.

The official in charge of the station transmitting LBC programmes was killed, the channel said. A nun at a nearby church said two French nationals were also lightly wounded.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said Israel hit a Hizbollah radio and television transmitter and an antenna transmitting frequencies "used by Hizbollah'. Hizbollah's al-Manar television was still broadcasting after the strikes.

Israeli medics and the army said at least 10 Hizbollah rockets hit towns across northern Israel, wounding 10 people and damaging two houses.

Five people were killed in air strikes in south Lebanon and witnesses reported heavy bombardment in close to the border, some of it near to areas from which Hizbollah launched rockets.

Across south Lebanon, families piled into cars and pickup trucks - flying white sheets they hoped would protect them from attack - and clogged roads to the north after Israeli planes dropped leaflets on Friday warning residents to flee for safety beyond the Litani river, about 20 km from the border.

But witnesses said an Israeli air strike hit one of the few remaining crossings over the river early yesterday, trapping hundreds of cars on the southern bank for several hours.

The war started when Hizbollah captured two soldiers and killed eight in a July 12 raid into Israel, which had already launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip to try to recover another soldier seized by Palestinian militants on June 25.

Washington supports proposals for an expanded international force on the Israel-Lebanon border but details were not fixed, a senior US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. A 2,000-strong UN force monitors the border at present.

Amid growing concern about the plight of civilians in Lebanon, Israel said it would ease humanitarian access. UN relief agencies have called for safe passage to take food and medical supplies to an estimated half million people who have fled their homes.

Foreigners have also flooded out of the country. Ships and aircraft worked through the night scooping more tired and scared people from Lebanon and taking them to Cyprus and Turkey.