Israel-Lebanon conflict enters third week

Friday, April 26, 1996

Peace talks continue as ammunition flies across both sides of
the borderBy Hussein Dakroub

The Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israeli warplanes roared across southern
Lebanon today in pre-dawn air raids as the bombardment of Hezbollah
guerrilla positions entered a third week.

In Jerusalem, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said it was
up to Israel and Syria, the dominant power over Lebanon, to work
out a cease-fire.

"These are differences that can be resolved only by the
parties," he maintained. Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres
claimed those differences were "very serious."

Christopher, who arrived in the Middle East over the weekend
with a mandate to stay until he brokers a truce, later flew to
Damascus, where he met in the morning with Syria’s President Hafez
Assad and planned a second session with Assad later in the day.

While they met, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns told
reporters that U.S. officials had not achieved what they had hoped
to, and said "the parties in these negotiations must work harder to
solve such differences."

In southern Lebanon, guerrillas ambushed a patrol of the
Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army, wounding one militiaman, said
security sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. There was no
claim of responsibility, but the attack bore the hallmarks of the
Shiite Muslim rebel group Hezbollah.

Israeli fighter-bombers, helicopter gunships and naval gunboats,
meanwhile, blasted road bridges and water facilities.

Police said a civilian was injured when Israeli gunboats shelled
a newly built bridge where the coastal highway enters Sidon, the
provincial capital of south Lebanon. Three shells slammed into the
metal-and-concrete bridge erected by the Lebanese army this week.
The bridge was not damaged.

U.N. officers said Israeli warplanes made nearly 60 bombing runs
from dusk Wednesday to dawn today, firing 101 rockets on targets
around the southern port of Tyre and the inland market town of
Nabatiyeh.

The bombardment has cut water and electricity to 11,000 people
in 45 villages and has blocked U.N. peacekeepers from getting food
and medical supplies to them, they said.

One missile destroyed a sewage network in the U.N.-policed
village of Yater, the officers said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

An Israeli army statement said Israeli jet fighters attacked
suspected guerrilla targets overnight in the border enclave Israel
has controlled in southern Lebanon since 1985. Pilots reported
direct hits and returned safely to base, the statement said.

The onslaught has failed to achieve its publicly declared goal
of curbing the ability of the Iranian-backed guerrillas to fire
rockets into northern Israeli towns.

U.N. officers in southern Lebanon said guerrillas fired 57
Katyusha rockets toward northern Israel overnight.

The Israeli army said a number of rockets fell in northern
Israel. One soldier was slightly wounded and was taken to a
hospital for treatment, and two others were "very lightly" injured
and were treated on the spot, the army said.

Another volley of Katyushas hit the Galilee panhandle in the
midmorning, damaging an empty school but causing no casualties, the
Israeli army said.

A total of 152 people have been killed on both sides since the
Israeli military operation began April 11, the majority of whom
were Lebanese. More than 320 people have been wounded, 500,000
Lebanese have been uprooted and thousands of Israelis have fled
their homes.