Word: raided
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...scale and ferocity of the fighting in Lebanon stunned the world, nations lined up to accuse Israel of a "disproportionate" response to Hizballah's raid two weeks ago, when it kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. But few initially were in doubt as to who started the fight, and it wasn't Israel. "I'm not any more fond of violence or the prospect of a major war than anyone else," says a French official involved in counterterrorism. "But how could Israel not respond to this provocation in a most forceful way?" Even the Saudis, never quick to grant Israel favors, disavowed...
...bulk of the pain last week was felt in Lebanon, as Israel bombarded the country, including sites in Beirut, killing more than 100 Lebanese by Saturday evening, almost all civilians. Hizballah, an Islamist Shi'ite group that operates freely in southern Lebanon, killed eight Israeli soldiers in its initial raid July 12 and has since flung hundreds of rockets into Israel, killing four civilians...
Many analysts believe that Hizballah must have carried out the raid with at least the encouragement of the group's main benefactors, Syria and especially Iran. "He who pays the money is the boss," says a Lebanese official, arguing that Tehran engineered the crisis in hopes of deflecting the Bush Administration's drive to impose U.N. sanctions for Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program. But whatever encouragement they may have had, neither Hamas nor Hizballah ever needs a specific justification for striking Israel. Attacking Israel is, for each, its raison d'être. And the groups' tacticians do not need...
...conflict suddenly returned following Wednesday's kidnapping of two Israeli solders in a cross-border raid by Hizballah, a militant Shiite Muslim faction. Accusing the Lebanese government of an act of war, the Israeli government launched a blockade against Lebanon Thursday morning. It started with an air blitz on Rafic Hariri International Airport, stranding hundreds of travelers before they could board scheduled flights. Earlier, Israeli artillery, gunboats and air strikes hit targets in southern Lebanon, including bridges, roads and a power station. Attacks continued at the rate of about one every 10 minutes, according to a Lebanese television channel...
...will tell whether Israel's tactic, which has included bombing the runways of Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport, produces the desired results, and leads Hizballah to free the two Israeli soldiers. But there is a real risk that the move may have the same unintended consequence of the raid 38 years ago: pushing Lebanon further into a spiral of internal strife and even a civil war that embroils the entire Middle East...