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Bombs turn Hizbollah base into ghost town

Atul Aneja

Fallen apartments, mounds of debris stand mute witnesses to West Asian strife

PHOTO: AP

VENTING THEIR FURY: Hizbollah supporters, furious over an Israeli air strike in Qana that killed 54 persons, smash through glass as they storm their way into the main United Nations building in Beirut on Sunday.

BEIRUT: With petrol shortages peaking, the traffic in Beirut is already down to a trickle. But vehicles can be rarely seen when the southern neighbourhood of Dahiyeh is approached.

A stronghold of the Hizbollah, this crowded zone, a maze of back-to-back apartment blocks, shopping districts and Hizbollah offices, has been extensively bombed. A short distance to the south from the Beirut corniche (road on the mountain side) — a splendid stretch set against the pale blue backdrop of the Mediterranean Sea — an eerie silence envelops the area.

Scene of devastation

Except for the presence of an occasional ramshackle taxi on the road, there are no visible signs of life here. The Dahiyeh neighbourhood falls across a broken bridge, an incomplete structure of concrete and mangled steel which was bombed a few days ago. Around the bridge, Israeli bombs have gouged huge craters that force vehicles to follow a circuitous path.

"Wait outside the burnt petrol station after you enter Dahiyeh and we will contact you," my Hizbollah contact had told me on the phone.

After a wait of around five minutes, two men appear on a scooter. Both are young, apparently in their 20's and appear cheerful. After a mandatory check of my papers, they ask me to wait a little longer. I am told that this exercise is necessary because Hizbollah does not want Israeli agents masquerading as journalists in this neighbourhood.

I ask them when was the last time that the district was bombed. "The petrol station was hit two days ago and there was bombing this morning," one of them said. By now, the sound of an Israeli drone overhead can be clearly heard. I am told that the drone has been keeping round-the-clock vigilance from the sky ever since the war began.

After a tense wait, three more cars, carrying more journalists arrive. The Hizbollah public relations team is now ready, and takes us on a whistle stop tour away from the main Hadi Nasrallah street.

The road has been named after the slain son of Hizbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. Scenes of heavy bombardment come into sight. Entire apartment blocks have been demolished. The ground on which these stood has powdery mounds of grey debris, twisted power cables and broken furniture. A faint foul smell, which was in the air all the time, becomes unbearable as the buildings are approached.

"There are dead people underneath but we do not have the heavy equipment that is required to take the bodies out," a Hizbollah activist said. By now, the noise of an approaching aircraft can be heard.

Apprehending an air strike, the Hizbollah activists ask us to disperse.

There is a rush for the cars that are waiting a short distance away. They race at top speed away from the ghost town of Dahiyeh.

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