Fierce battles continue on eve of Lebanon truce

BEIRUT - Israeli warplanes and ground forces pounded southern Lebanon on Monday, pressing an offensive against Hizbollah before a UN-brokered ceasefire designed to end the month-long war due at 5am GMT (5pm NZT).

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported on its website that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had ordered the army to observe the truce from 2am on Monday local time (11am NZT) and to start withdrawing some troops from southern Lebanon.

No independent confirmation of the report was immediately available.

Earlier, Lebanese security sources reported fierce battles between Israeli troops and Hizbollah in southern Lebanon, as witnesses said Israeli warplanes struck areas near the city of Tyre. Israel has some 30,000 troops in south Lebanon.

Air strikes on the village of Brital near Lebanon's eastern border with Syria overnight killed at least nine civilians and wounded 33, medics said. More people were buried under rubble.

On Sunday, Israel's cabinet approved a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to the fighting and the deployment of a U.N. force of up to 15,000 to help enforce the truce. The Lebanese government has also agreed to the resolution.

Hizbollah yesterday launched its heaviest one-day rocket barrage into Israel since the start of the war. Security officials said more than 250 rockets were fired, killing a 70-year-old man and wounding at least 91 people. Some hit the centre of the port city of Haifa but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli army said five soldiers were killed and 25 wounded in fighting on Sunday. The previous day was the deadliest day of the month-old war for the army, with 19 soldiers killed and five missing and feared dead after their helicopter was shot down by Hizbollah.

Lebanese security sources said Israeli air raids killed at least 22 people.

Israeli officials said Israel believed it would be entitled to use force to prevent Hizbollah from rearming and to clear guerrilla positions out of southern Lebanon after the truce took effect. They said such "defensive" operations were permissible under the UN resolution to end the fighting.

Western diplomats and UN officials said they feared Israel's broad definition of "defensive" actions could lead to a resurgence in large-scale fighting and prevent the swift deployment of international troops meant to monitor a cease-fire.

"It will be a fragile truce," said a Western diplomat involved in the deliberations.

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday his guerrillas would observe a truce once it began but reserved the right to fight Israeli soldiers still on Lebanese soil.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni repeated Israel's position that its troops would only pull out when a peacekeeping force arrived - which the UN says could take up to 10 days.

Israel, which has some 30,000 troops in Lebanon, widened its offensive on Friday despite the UN resolution.

Attacked targets

Israeli aircraft attacked targets in more than 50 villages and towns, Lebanese security sources said, killing at least eight people in southern Lebanon and seven in the Bekaa valley.

Several explosions shook Beirut and thick white smoke billowed over the Hizbollah-controlled southern suburbs. The attack destroyed 11 residential buildings. Witnesses and security sources said two children were killed.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said fighting should end immediately to spare civilians.

"The fighting should stop now to respect the spirit and intent of the Security Council decision, the object of which was to save civilian lives, to spare the pain and suffering that the civilians on both sides are living through," Annan said.

Around 1,100 people in Lebanon and 149 Israelis, including 109 soldiers, have been killed in the war.

Analysts said that a truce might not hold, particularly with Israeli troops still in Lebanon.

"I think this talk of a cease-fire going into effect tomorrow seems to be highly exaggerated and dubious," said Mouin Rabbani, senior Middle East analyst with the International Crisis Group.

"It seems that Israel's strategy has been to establish positions as far north as possible to implement a fighting withdrawal, meaning that they will try to take on as much of Hizbollah as they can as they work their way south."

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that the Israeli government was willing to discuss a possible release of Hizbollah prisoners in exchange for the freeing of two Israeli soldiers whose capture on July 12 sparked the war.

The Israeli military said it had launched more than 100 air strikes in Lebanon since Friday evening, attacking more than 50 Hizbollah command stations, two missile launchers, and two vehicles carrying weapons from Syria to the Bekaa valley.

Israel said it had killed 40 Hizbollah guerrillas in the past 24 hours. Hizbollah said one fighter died on Sunday.

Hizbollah reported fierce fighting in several parts of the border area and said its guerrillas destroyed at least three tanks and two bulldozers.

- REUTERS