12 Israeli troops are killed during battle
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli troops as they battled for a key hilltop town in southern Lebanon for a fourth day today, with at least 12 soldiers reported killed. Israel has faced fiercer resistance than expected as it advances across the border in its campaign against the Islamic militant group.
Lebanese officials, meanwhile, confirmed that four U.N. observers were killed when an Israeli airstrike struck their post the night before.
The fighting came a day after Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel plans to maintain a security zone in the south until either a multinational force is deployed or Hezbollah is pushed back in a cease-fire agreement that also cuts off the supply of its weapons.
Peretz indicated that troops would try to control such a zone from a distance, by artillery fire and airstrikes, rather than patrolling south Lebanon. The remarks were the first indication of the possibility of a longer Israeli involvement than previously had been raised by officials wary of public anger over its 18-year occupation of the area that ended in 2000.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a parliament committee today that Israel will not reoccupy any part of southern Lebanon, participants said, apparently to reassure lawmakers and the public that troops will not return to Lebanon permanently.
Proposals for disarming the Shiite Islamic militant group and assembling an international peacekeeping force along the Israeli-Lebanese border were on the agenda today as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other key Mideast players met in Rome to discuss the crisis.
Italian Premier Romano Prodi said the conference was a "starting point" for bringing peace and stability to Lebanon and effective security to Israel.
"The determination and unity of this group is of fundamental importance for the realization of our objectives for peace and democracy in the Middle East," Prodi told senior officials from the United States, Europe and the Arab world.
Rice attended a morning meeting with Italy's foreign minister before the conference began. She declined to comment when asked if she planned to announce an international force for Lebanon.
Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based satellite TV channel said at least 12 Israeli soldiers had been killed in the fighting for control of Bint Jbail, a town that has symbolic importance to the Shiite Islamic militant group as one of the centers of resistance to the 1982-2000 Israeli occupation.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli military would only say that several soldiers had been wounded in heavy fighting at Bint Jbail. If confirmed, it would be the largest death toll suffered by the Israeli military in a single attack since the offensive began two weeks ago.
The international community also stepped up efforts to get aid to those stranded in the troubled south. A U.N. convoy of 10 trucks carrying food, medicine, sanitation and hygiene supplies left Beirut for the port city of Tyre. The United Nations said it was the first such effort to distribute aid to the south via "safe humanitarian corridors."
