Word: lebanon
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...Israelis have been bombing much of southern Lebanon, but Bint Jbeil - which commands a strategic height - has been a scene of intense shelling. Residents have been forced to flee to the town of Tibnine, southeast of Tyre, where they're holed up in the city's hospital. "Most of the houses have been destroyed," said Abou Alawi, describing how she ran from house to house as the Israelis bombed structure after structure...
...Hebrew, the word "merkava" means chariot, and the Israeli tank known as Merkava 4 is a mighty, steel-plated chariot of war. But in the stony hills of southern Lebanon, in battles where stealth is more valued than firepower, the chariot is reduced to being an ambulance, ferrying wounded commandos back across the border. And even then, the tank is proving to be less than invincible...
...siege of Bint Jbeil, a town used by Hizballah Islamic militants to spray the northern corners of Israel with rocket fire. The town also has symbolic value to Hizballah; it was here in 2000 that Hizballah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed victory after Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon. The sheikh' s jeering remarks had riled the Israeli generals, so they didn't need any extra motivation this week when Bint Jbeil, its tunnels and caves stocked with rockets and over 100 Hizballah fighters, turned into a major target of the theirs...
...Early on, the Israelis were reluctant to send lots of troops into the fray; Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wanted to keep down casualties and reassure the international community that Israel had no intention of grabbing real estate in Lebanon. And, according to military sources, the Israelis also lacked on-the ground intelligence, so they underestimated Hizballah' s strength and its determination to punch it out. Despite the Israeli offensive, Hizballah still managed to sling over 2,000 rockets onto Israel...
...understatement to say that Nabih Berri is an unlikely figure to become America's go-to guy and negotiating partner in Lebanon. After all, the leader of the Shia Muslim Amal party became Speaker of the Lebanese parliament with Syria's forceful backing in 1992, a post he still holds. And Monday, he minced no words in calling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's fly-by in Beirut a failure because she wasn't willing to support an immediate ceasefire...