Israel prepares for ground invasion of southern Lebanon

HAIFA - Israel has called up 3000 reservists as it prepares for a possible full-scale ground invasion of southern Lebanon after accepting that its objective of "crippling" Hizbollah has not yet been achieved by massive use of air power and "pinpoint" ground operations alone.

An Israeli invasion of Lebanon is likely on Friday night (US time, later today NZ time), intelligence sources told US network NBC News, its affiliated network CNBC has reported.

CNBC said an unidentified Western nation had also told NBC that Israeli troops were expected to enter Lebanon on Friday night.

Israeli spokesman Mark Regev, asked on CNN about reports of an imminent Israeli ground attack on Lebanon, said: "I can say the following. You have a threat there and we have to deal with the threat.

"We've had land incursions in the past and were going to have land incursions in the future. That's part of our strategy to hit Hizbollah from the land, the sea and the air," Regev said.

Israel is seeking to establish a 1.5km "sterile" zone on the Lebanese side of its northern border in the face of what the military acknowledges has been effective and well prepared resistance by Hizbollah forces, costing the lives of six elite Israeli ground troops in the past 48 hours.

Israeli media reported that thousands of soldiers were already operating inside southern Lebanon, where they have been trying to destroy Hizbollah bunkers but also coming under heavy attack. The Army refused to confirm or deny those reports.

Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to flee the south "immediately", apparently preparing for a ground invasion.

After a relative lull in rocket attacks two people were badly injured by a Katyusha which hit a closed post office in central Haifa, one of 10 which were launched into the city during the day and underlined Hizbollah's continuing capacity to strike far into northen Israel despite nine days of bombardment and blockade of Lebanon.

Amid mounting world alarm at the crisis, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would visit the Middle East next week and attend an Italian-hosted international conference in Rome on Wednesday in a bid to secure lasting peace.

The United States, Israel's main ally, has rebuffed Lebanon's appeals for an immediate UN-backed cease-fire, saying this would not last unless Hizbollah guerrillas, backed by Syria and Iran, were prevented from attacking the Jewish state.

Rice told a news conference in Washington an immediate truce would be a "false promise" if the root causes of the fighting were not addressed.

"An immediate cease-fire without political conditions does not make sense," she said. "What I won't do is ... try to get a cease-fire that I know isn't going to last."

Washington supported proposals for an expanded international force on the Israel-Lebanon border but details were not fixed, a senior US official said on condition of anonymity. A 2,000-strong UN force monitors the border at present.

Israel's reserve troops - likely to be used in the West Bank to free up more combat units to move up to the Lebanon border - were called up as Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over southern Lebanon warning civilians to leave border villages for areas north of the Litani river, about 13 miles from the frontier.

The area south of the river is normally inhabited by around 300,000 people, a majority of who are Shiite Muslims.

One senior Israel Defence Forces officer, Brigadier-General Alon Friedman of the Northen command told the French news agency AFP that forces already on the border were of "division strength" and would allow a "large scale" ground operation if necessary.

Israeli officials insist that the severe weakening of Hizbollah is a necessary precondition of striking a ceasefire agreement that will enable the international commitment to disarming it - embodied in UN Security Council resolutions - to be implemented by the Lebanese Army or a new multinational force.

Brigadier Ido Yehushtan, the IDF's policy and planning chief, said yesterday that Israel's aim was to "cripple significantly" Hizbollah's military capabilities but said that the task "will take time" to fulfil and that Hizbollah had used six years of preparations to establish well hidden bunkers and tunnels.

"It will not be a matter of days," he added.

A senior Israeli official explained that the objective of disabling Hizbollah's capacity included a 1.5 km-wide border zone in which Hizbollah bases, trees, and rocks would be bulldozed.

He did not say whether houses would be destroyed or whether local civilian residents would be allowed back once the zone was established but said that only Lebanese Army personnel-if deployed-or a possible multinational force would be allowed to carry arms.

Funerals were held yesterday for three of four IDF soldiers who were killed-and another five wounded-in running land battles on Thursday at the Lebanese border north of Moshav Avimim - where two soldiers were also killed on Wednesday - as the Army hunted for Hizbollah bases and weapons caches.

The Army said that Hizbollah also suffered losses and an Israeli Airforce pilot was killed in a mid air collision between two Apache helicopters outside the far northern Israeli town of Kyriat Shimona.

An Israeli official said that the soldiers who were killed had been part of a limited ground operation in which combat units would normally disable booby traps before bulldozing enemy bases.

Haifa's city centre was tense yesterday as sirens sounded through the day and police and rescue workers began the task of clearing broken glass and rubble from the blast which damaged a corner of the post office building, closed like many other shops in the city because of the rocket attacks.

The leg of an injured woman was severed by the explosion.

The Mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, told reporters he believed that Hizbollah had deliberately used a lull to try and lure residents outside.

"But they took our advice to stay in shelters," he added.

While the right wing have been increasingly calling for a ground invasion of Lebanon senior Labour politicians with top intelligence backgrounds, Ami Ayalon former head of Shin Bet, and Danny Atom, former head of Mossad have come out strongly in public against it.

But Israeli officials acknowledge that a ground invasion - if one happens - might require an initial advance as far, if not beyond, the Litani river, inevitably evoking comparisons with the 1982 Lebanon war, which eventually became the most unpopular in Israel's history.

But they insist that Israel will not again reoccupy Lebanon.

One official said: "When the operation is over, there will be not one Israeli soldier in Lebanon," I can assure you.

The leading Israeli commentator Ari Shavit wrote in the liberal daily Haaretz on Thursday that since air power had not succeeded in disabling Hizbollah Israel would soon have to choose whether to resort to a full scale ground invasion or resort to a diplomatic solition.

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS