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Israel carries out heaviest yet bombardment of Lebanon

America says U.N. resolution designed to halt the war is nearing completion

BEIRUT: Israel on Saturday launched its heaviest bombardment of the nearly month-long conflict in southern Lebanon, carrying out 250 air raids and firing 4,000 shells, and its naval commandos attacked targets near the port city of Tyre to prevent rocket launches by Hizbollah. The seven-hour bombardment began at dawn and Lebanese officials said it targeted 15 villages located 5 km from the border.

Israeli commandos raided an apartment building in Tyre, battling Hizbollah guerrillas. The fighting across the country killed at least eight Lebanese and an Israeli soldier.

Fighting may intensify

After days of desultory diplomacy, Washington has said it was near an agreement with France on a U.N. ceasefire resolution, possibly by early next week. But no cessation of fighting was in sight on Saturday.

Given the determination of both Hizbollah and Israel to look victorious when the conflict finally ends, the worst of the fighting may still lie ahead with the guerilla fighters perhaps making good on its threat to rocket the main Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv and Israel launching an all-out ground offensive, pushing northward to the Litani river about 30 km from the border.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch met Lebanese officials in Beirut, trying to pave the way for an end to hostilities. He visited Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a prominent Shia, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hizbollah in the conflict.

``My meeting today was an important step to putting behind us forever the terrible violence witnessed in the past three weeks,'' Mr. Welch said after meeting Mr. Saniora.

He said talks focused on establishing a lasting political framework and an international force to support the Lebanese army in moving into the south.

The raid in Tyre was the latest Israeli commando operation deep inside Lebanese territory aimed at taking out Hizbollah strongpoints even as heavy fighting raged closer to the border, where Israel is trying to push back guerillas.

The commandos landed from the sea and progressed through an orchard before dawn, cutting through a barbed wire fence to advance on the apartment building where a fierce gunbattle broke out with those inside.

The State Department said on Friday that the United States and France were nearing completion of a U.N. resolution designed to halt the fighting in Lebanon and to set out principles for a lasting ceasefire.

``We are very close to a final draft with the French on a text,'' the department's spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday. — AP, PTI

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