Syria issues a warning to Israel

TYRE – Israeli jets blitzed Lebanon yesterday and Hezbollah fired off more deadly rockets in a new bout of tit-for-tat attacks as the conflict continued to spiral despite international efforts for a ceasefire.

As a host of top European diplomats descended on the region, Syria fuelled fears the fighting could spread, issuing a stark warning that it would intervene if Israel invaded Lebanon. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also heading to the Middle East with Washington increasingly estranged from European and Arab allies over a conflict that has killed close to 400 people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.PRE-DAWN RAID At least five people were killed in air strikes across southern and eastern Lebanon as Israel kept up its punishing war on Hezbollah following the seizure of a strategic border village by Israeli ground forces on Saturday.In a wave of pre-dawn raids, fighter-bombers for the first time struck directly inside the main southern city of Sidon, where tens of thousands of Lebanese have sought refuge from the relentless Israeli offensive.A three-storey building housing a Hezbollah religious centre was hit.Israel also targeted Hezbollah’s power base in Beirut’s Shiite-dominated southern suburbs and struck factories, roads and bridges in air strikes in the eastern Baalbek region.Shiite guerrillas responded with a new hail of rocket fire on Israel’s third city of Haifa, killing two people.Streams of people, many waving white flags, are making a desperate trek from southern Lebanon after Israel ordered them to leave their homes, raising fears it was planning a large-scale ground invasion.Close to 360 people have been killed in Israel’s massive blitz against Lebanon which was launched after the capture of two soldiers by guerrillas from the Shiite Muslim group in a deadly border attack on July 12.A total of 37 Israelis have died.Syria, blamed by the United States for stoking the conflict, warned that if Israel invaded Lebanon it would have no choice but to respond.”If Israel makes a land entry into Lebanon, they can get to within 20 kilometres of Damascus,” Information Minister Moshen Bilal told the Spanish newspaper ABC.”What will we do? Stand by with our arms folded? Absolutely not.Without any doubt Syria will intervene in the conflict.”Israel, which has called up thousands of reserve soldiers and massed its troops on the border, seized control of the strategic town of Marun Al-Ras on Saturday after sending tanks, bulldozers and armoured cars rolling across the border.A spokesman for UN peacekeepers said fighting was continuing Sunday in the area, where five Israeli soldiers and several Hezbollah militiamen have been killed in recent days.But Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel did not plan on a widescale invasion.”The ground operation is focusing on a limited entry of forces,” he told the cabinet.”We are not dealing with an invasion of Lebanon.”As international efforts to end the conflict gathered pace, there was growing criticism of Israel’s offensive, which has left Lebanon virtually cut off from the world, made hundreds of thousands refugees in their own country and destroyed billions of dollars of infrastructure.”The whole thing has to stop.It’s no natural disaster but a man-made crisis.This is a senseless war.It should never have started.It should never have been carried out like it is now,” UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland said.He was in Beirut to launch an appeal for millions of dollars in aid to help the half million civilians displaced by what the United Nations says has created a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.But the White House said Saturday it was sticking to its policy.”We are keeping to our adopted position.Israel has the right to defend herself,” a spokesman told the news agency, as the United States was expediting an arms shipment of precision bombs to Israel from an arms deal struck last year.- Nampa-AFPUS Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also heading to the Middle East with Washington increasingly estranged from European and Arab allies over a conflict that has killed close to 400 people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.PRE-DAWN RAID At least five people were killed in air strikes across southern and eastern Lebanon as Israel kept up its punishing war on Hezbollah following the seizure of a strategic border village by Israeli ground forces on Saturday.In a wave of pre-dawn raids, fighter-bombers for the first time struck directly inside the main southern city of Sidon, where tens of thousands of Lebanese have sought refuge from the relentless Israeli offensive.A three-storey building housing a Hezbollah religious centre was hit.Israel also targeted Hezbollah’s power base in Beirut’s Shiite-dominated southern suburbs and struck factories, roads and bridges in air strikes in the eastern Baalbek region.Shiite guerrillas responded with a new hail of rocket fire on Israel’s third city of Haifa, killing two people.Streams of people, many waving white flags, are making a desperate trek from southern Lebanon after Israel ordered them to leave their homes, raising fears it was planning a large-scale ground invasion.Close to 360 people have been killed in Israel’s massive blitz against Lebanon which was launched after the capture of two soldiers by guerrillas from the Shiite Muslim group in a deadly border attack on July 12.A total of 37 Israelis have died.Syria, blamed by the United States for stoking the conflict, warned that if Israel invaded Lebanon it would have no choice but to respond.”If Israel makes a land entry into Lebanon, they can get to within 20 kilometres of Damascus,” Information Minister Moshen Bilal told the Spanish newspaper ABC.”What will we do? Stand by with our arms folded? Absolutely not.Without any doubt Syria will intervene in the conflict.”Israel, which has called up thousands of reserve soldiers and massed its troops on the border, seized control of the strategic town of Marun Al-Ras on Saturday after sending tanks, bulldozers and armoured cars rolling across the border.A spokesman for UN peacekeepers said fighting was continuing Sunday in the area, where five Israeli soldiers and several Hezbollah militiamen have been killed in recent days.But Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel did not plan on a widescale invasion.”The ground operation is focusing on a limited entry of forces,” he told the cabinet.”We are not dealing with an invasion of Lebanon.”As international efforts to end the conflict gathered pace, there was growing criticism of Israel’s offensive, which has left Lebanon virtually cut off from the world, made hundreds of thousands refugees in their own country and destroyed billions of dollars of infrastructure.”The whole thing has to stop.It’s no natural disaster but a man-made crisis.This is a senseless war.It should never have started.It should never have been carried out like it is now,” UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland said.He was in Beirut to launch an appeal for millions of dollars in aid to help the half million civilians displaced by what the United Nations says has created a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.But the White House said Saturday it was sticking to its policy.”We are keeping to our adopted position.Israel has the right to defend herself,” a spokesman told the news agency, as the United States was expediting an arms shipment of precision bombs to Israel from an arms deal struck last year.- Nampa-AFP