Deadly Attacks Widen In Lebanon

At Least 51 Killed As Diplomats Struggle Over Cease-Fire Plan

(CBS/AP) 
But it makes no explicit mention of an Israeli withdrawal, and implicitly allows Israeli defensive operations. Instead, it calls in the longer-term for a buffer zone in southern Lebanon — which Hezbollah controls and where Israeli troops are now fighting. Only Lebanese armed forces and U.N.-mandated international troops would be allowed in the zone.

France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, promised Monday to take into account Lebanon's concerns that the resolution does not seek the withdrawal of Israeli troops. But he did not say whether France was prepared to add such language to the text.

Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft later Monday, in response to amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said.

The proposed changes include a call for Israeli forces to pull out of Lebanon once the fighting stops and hand over their positions to U.N. peacekeepers. Arab states also want the U.N. to take control of the disputed Chebaa Farms area, which Israel seized in 1967.

"We need today pressure on the international community for a Security Council resolution that imposes a comprehensive and permanent cease-fire that provides simultaneously for a complete Israeli withdrawal," Saniora said at the hastily arranged Arab League gathering in Beirut.

The Arab foreign ministers announced they would send a delegation to the U.N. to represent Lebanon's interests at a meeting with the Security Council on Tuesday. The timing of the meeting means the council probably would not adopt a resolution until Wednesday at the earliest.

Saniora said Lebanon was "stunned" by the devastation of the Israeli offensive, which had taken "our country back decades. We are still in the middle of the shock."

Israel, reeling from 15 deaths in Hezbollah rocket strikes a day earlier, fought back with particular ferocity Monday.

A sunset airstrike on a south Beirut suburb killed at least 10 people in the predominantly Shiite district of Chiah. At least eight strikes rattled the capital in the one-hour period before dawn.

To the east, Israeli warplanes staged bombing runs on suspected Hezbollah positions in the Bekaa Valley, killing at least eight people and wounding 32, witnesses and civil defense officials said.

In the south, Israeli commandos helicoptered down to a hill overlooking Ras al-Biyada at mid-afternoon, fighting Hezbollah in close combat in a bid to destroy rocket launchers. About 30 commandos battled the guerrillas, but there was no word on casualties, a Lebanese official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Almost all the ground battles have taken place south of the Litani River, some 18 miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border. The Israeli army said it declared an indefinite curfew beginning Monday night on the movement of vehicles south of the Litani. Humanitarian traffic would be allowed, but other vehicles would be at risk if they ignored the order, the army said.

The Israelis want to destroy the guerrillas' rocket launchers, but Hezbollah has other weapons in its arsenal.

The Israeli air force shot down a Hezbollah drone for the first time Monday, sending its wreckage plunging into the sea, the army said. Israeli media reported that the unmanned aircraft had the capacity to carry 90 pounds of explosives, nearly as much as the more powerful rockets Hezbollah has been firing into Israel. Unlike the rockets, the drone has a guidance system to for accurate targeting.

Despite his country coming under more rocket attacks, CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan reports that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is still talking tough.

"We are going to win this war. As I said from day one, it's not going to be easy. We are going to pay a terrible price," Olmert said.

[jasteffen]

Why is there so much disrespect for the office of the President of the United States? Regardless of what you think of President Bush himself and his policies, he still holds the office of the President of the United States and deserves to be referred to as President Bush, and NOT "Mr. Bush."
Your Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Axelrod, in a complete display of his disdain for the Presidency, stated, %u201CMr. Bush and Secretary Rice are pushing two resolutions. The first calls for an immediate cease-fire." Furthermore on your website, the following is quoted, "Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said an immediate cease-fire would not have worked before now %u2014 time was needed to build an international consensus that Hezbollah can no longer act as an armed state within a state, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod."
A news agency is not supposed to be partial, but your Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Axelrod, shows his anti-Bush partiality plain as day in his reporting. This is a disgrace to our great nation. Show some respect. President Bush was duly elected to the office of the Presidency, like it or not.

[emanualhyman]

You write - A tearful Lebanese prime minister pleaded for an end to a war that has killed more than 700 people, including at least 51 on Monday. Note - Said impassioned plea was based on Siniora saying that 40 people had been killed in the bombing of a building in an air aid on Houla. Guess what? CNN reports - Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Monday that one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Houla, not 40 as he had earlier reported. Question %u2013 How credible are the numbers if even the Prime Minister can%u2019t get it right?

[emanualhyman]

Re: My earlier, longish posting on CBS%u2019s biased reporting, I found the following on CNN: Quote: The AP reported that Israeli attacks killed 49 people Monday, noting that such tallies have been difficult to confirm. Unquote. Note the AP qualification. These tallies are indeed difficult to confirm, see my earlier post. They should not be quoted in an unqualified manner; perhaps they should not be quoted at all until there is good, confirmed information. I seem to remember that proper journalism calls for getting the correct story, even if the story takes a little longer.

By the way, I apologize for the legibility of that longish previous post %u2013 it seems that the computer translates quotation marks as %u201C and %u201D.

[emanualhyman]

If the Lebanese army has claimed it was unable to control Hizbula heretofore, and if, as reported, many members of the Lebanese army are Hizbula sympathizers, why would anyone think that the Lebanese army will be able to, or want to, control Hizbula now? The proposal is to call in the mice to guard the cheese?

[emanualhyman]

CBS%u2019s biased reporting disserves America. CBS: %u201CIsrael intensified strikes on Beirut and southern Lebanon Monday, killing at least 33 people.%u201D. Another source: %u201CLate Monday evening IAF fighters struck targets in a Hizbullah-controlled neighborhood of Beirut. Security officials at the scene reported at least five dead and 20 others wounded. Earlier, Lebanese Prime Minister Saniora said one person died in an earlier Israeli air raid on Houla, reversing his earlier claim that 40 were killed there.%u201D How many were killed? Human rights observers revised a claimed 48 dead in another incident to 27 dead, you trumpeted 48, but never mentioned the revised 27. CBS: %u201CIsrael's attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 617 people, including 524 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas%u201C - source? Hiszbula, as a London Daily Telegraph expose reported? Israel reports 400 Hizbula killed. Missing on CBS: While Israel takes casualties to minimize civilian deaths, Hizbula targets civilians; disrupted lives of Israeli civilians under attack; failed UN and Lebanon commitments to disarm Hizbula; US response if Al Queda hid out in Cuba and kidnapped US soldiers, with 18,000 missiles aimed at the US; death in Lebanon compared to death inflicted by UN troops in Kosovo. Why, CBS?

[verrz]

The principle of action-reaction holds true for history: Let a bellicose neocon regime entrench itself in Washington and voila, you will get opposing regimes in abundance.

[meshoogle]

If one shall think that Israel is wrong for hitting a building with civilians, well if you have a country that has terorists fighting from there, don't expect that your civilians won't get hurt! stop the terorist from your country!!