Israel pulls out of town; Hezbollah declares victory
JERUSALEM -- Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah declared victory yesterday after Israel announced that it was withdrawing its forces from the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, where Israeli troops found unexpected difficulty in dislodging the guerrilla group from its strongholds.
Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, defended the decision to pull troops from Bint Jbeil, saying Israel had accomplished its mission. But Nasrallah's declaration underscored the propaganda gains the Islamic militia is attempting to reap across the Muslim world as it battles Israeli forces.
``The Israelis are ready to halt the aggression because they are afraid of the unknown," Nasrallah said in a speech in which he also expressed measured support for the Lebanese government's efforts to reach a peace agreement.
On the 18th day of fighting, Hezbollah fired at least 39 rockets into Israel, wounding about a dozen people.
Israel continued its bombing campaign. An Israeli strike outside the market town of Nabatiyeh crushed a house, killing a woman and her five children, and a man in a nearby house, Lebanese security officials said. Elsewhere, six bodies were dug from the rubble of a house destroyed Friday in the town of Ain Arab, officials said.
An Israeli airstrike closed Lebanon's main crossing point to Syria yesterday for the first time since the conflict started, security officials said. Three airstrikes hit the road between Lebanese and Syrian immigration offices in the Masnaa area in the eastern Bekaa Valley, but on the Lebanese side of the border, they said. There were no casualties.
Israeli bombings also wounded two Indian peacekeepers at a United Nations observation post in southern Lebanon, days after an Israeli airstrike killed four UN observers.
Despite its intense bombardment of Lebanon -- and heavy ground fighting near the border -- Israel has been unable to stop the barrages of hundreds of Hezbollah rockets. Guerrillas fired at least 39 rockets into Israel yesterday, injuring five people.
Israel's pullback of its forces from Bint Jbeil ended the bloodiest siege in what has so far been only a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
The weeklong battle underscored Israel's difficulty in pushing back guerrillas who have been preparing for years for this fight, building up arsenals and digging tunnels and shelters in caves.
The bombardment by Israeli forces and rocket fire from guerrillas was intense yesterday morning around the Hezbollah stronghold, Lebanese security officials said. But by the afternoon, Israel had withdrawn.
Major General Udi Adam, head of Israel's northern command, said Israel never intended to get ``stuck in one place." He said the real mission -- ``to destroy infrastructure and kill terrorists" -- had been a success.
Eighteen soldiers were killed in Bint Jbeil -- nine of them in Hezbollah ambushes Wednesday, the military's worst one-day loss in the campaign. Adam said dozens of guerrillas were killed in the week of fighting, but Hezbollah contends only 35 deaths since the conflict began.
Israeli troops still hold Maroun al-Ras, a nearby village, as well as the high ground above Bint Jbeil, Adam said.
At least 458 Lebanese have been killed in the fighting, according to a Health Ministry count Friday based on the number of bodies in hospitals, plus yesterday's deaths. Some estimates are as high as 600 dead, with many bodies buried in rubble.
Thirty-three Israeli troops have died, and Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel have killed 19 civilians, the Israeli army said.
The conflict began when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others during a cross-border raid July 12. Israel launched an immediate response, bombing Beirut and southern Lebanon and vowing to destroy Hezbollah militarily before it would cease fire.
Material from the Associated Press and Reuters was included in this report. 