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Eight killed as Hizbollah rocket barrage hits Haifa

Atul Aneja

Syria is strengthening militia's hands, charges Israel

DUBAI: Israel has accused Syria of strengthening the arsenal of rockets used by the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, during a sustained attack which killed eight persons in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

In the first wave of the attack that appeared to target major installations, eight persons were killed when rockets smashed into a storage facility at the Haifa railway station. Soon after, four Katyusha rockets landed in the middle of a Haifa street, causing motorists to scamper for cover.

Oil refineries attacked

Hizbollah's Al Manar television said the group had attacked oil refineries in the Haifa bay. It said it had deliberately spared attacking another high value target — Haifa's petrochemical complex, but would do so, unless Israel showed restraint.

Hizbollah said it had attacked Haifa, in retaliation to Israeli air raids, which had killed several Lebanese civilians and damaged the country's infrastructure.

Several waves of Israeli aircraft blasted Hizbollah strongholds in southern Beirut on Sunday. According to some reports, the Al Manar television station building had been destroyed. The ancient city of Baalbek, in the Bekka valley, where local Hizbollah activists had gathered was also bombed. The Al-Jazeera television quoted a denial by Hizbollah that its leader Hassan Nasrallah had been wounded on Sunday during an Israeli air raid.

Intent on targeting Lebanon's infrastructure, Israeli warplanes struck a major power station in Beirut, leading to further shortages of power in the embattled city. Major Lebanese port cities of Tripoli and Jounieh have also been struck during the rapidly intensifying Israeli air campaign.

Soon after the Haifa attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that the incident would have "far-reaching consequences." Israel has also put Tel Aviv on rocket alert after the Haifa attack.

The death toll in the four-day-old conflict rose above 100 in Lebanon, and stood at 24 in Israel. Israel has confirmed that four of its sailors had died during a Hizbollah attack on one of its warships.

Syria vows retaliation

Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz has accused Syria of arming Hizbollah with rockets that exploded around the port of Haifa. "These rockets were delivered by Syria," Mr. Mofaz, a former Defence Minister, told reporters.

Syria's government vowed on Sunday that an Israeli attack on its territory would result in firm and immediate retaliation. Iran, on its part has also denied the Israeli accusation that it had positioned 100 soldiers in Lebanon to assist Hizbollah. It reiterated its solidarity with Hizbollah and Syria.

Western governments have stepped up arrangements for evacuating their nationals from Lebanon. The French government has chartered a ferry that would shuttle between Lebanon and Cyprus, accommodating 800 persons in each trip. A British aircraft carrier has crossed Gibraltar and appears to be on its way to fetch stranded British nationals.

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