Lebanon reels under new wave of deadly strikes

BEIRUT: Lebanon shook under a new wave of killer air raids Monday after Israel vowed a fierce response to a deadly Hezbollah rocket attack deep inside its territory, with no sign of a let-up in the conflict.   

At least 19 people, including Lebanese soldiers, were killed as war planes slammed missiles into a military base in the northern city of Tripoli, the port of Beirut and Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold.   

Governments worldwide were scrambling Monday to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon on the sixth day of the devastating blitz of Israel air strikes and rocket attacks by the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia.   

In the strongest message yet from a divided international community, the G8 group of world powers demanded at their summit in Saint Petersburg both an end to Israeli military operations and attacks by militants on Israel.   

UN and EU envoys were also in the region holding urgent talks to try to contain the crisis amid fears it could spiral out of control and trigger another all-out war in the Middle East.   

Monday's raids brought to at least 167 the number killed in Lebanon over six days, Israel's fiercest offensive on its northern neighbour since it launched a full-scale invasion in 1982.   

Israel also stepped up its offensive in Gaza overnight, where at least 85 Palestinians have been killed in three weeks.   

The onslaught has left Lebanon virtually cut of from the outside world and much of its infrastructure in tatters, with jets targeting roads, bridges and power stations as well as strongholds of Hezbollah, the militia Israel has vowed to crush.   

Beirut's international airport, already shut to traffic, was hit again late Sunday by Israeli warplanes which fired 10 missiles on a runway and set the night sky ablaze.   

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had warned of retaliation after Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa, Israel's third largest city, killing eight railway workers in the deadliest cross-border attack in decades.   

"Nothing will deter us, whatever far-reaching ramifications regarding our relations on the northern border and in the region there may be."   

The Israeli military ordered residents to flee villages in southern Lebanon, warning of air and artillery operations, and put the commercial capital Tel Aviv and all towns further north on alert.   

"We will use all means," a defiant Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned in an address on Lebanese television. "As long as the enemy has no limits, we will have no limits."   

"Surprises are coming. Our forces are still intact, and we are the ones who are choosing the time and the place," said

Nasrallah, who has survived repeated attacks on his headquarters in Beirut's Shiite dominated southern suburbs.   

As Israeli jets showed no sign of easing its ever-widening assault on Lebanon, foreign governments were swinging into action to evacuate their nationals.   

The disabled airport is one of many problems facing residents and foreign nationals seeking to flee Lebanon, with the increasingly dangerous land route to Syria the only available exit for many.   

The United States on Sunday began airlifting its nationals out by military helicopter to neighbouring Cyprus, while two British warships were steaming towards Lebanon and a ferry chartered by the French government was due to start taking on board its first passengers Monday.   

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has declared Lebanon a "disaster zone" and appealed for urgent international help for a country that was slowly rebuilding after a devastating 15-year civil war and the end of a three-decade Syrian military presence.   

But diplomatic efforts finally began to gain momentum with a UN mission in Beirut for talks with Siniora on a possible ceasefire and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying she is considering travelling to the region.   

In the highest-profile visit since the crisis-began, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana also arrived in Lebanon for talks with Siniora.   

The United States has maintained Israel had every right to defend itself and also urged restraint over the offensive, which has split the international community and raised fears of dragging Syria and Iran into the conflict.   

But the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States presented a united front in urging all parties to halt violence in a statement issued at their summit.   

"The extremists must immediately halt their attacks. Those extremist elements and those that support them cannot be allowed to plunge the Middle East into chaos and provoke a wider conflict."   

Urging Israel "to exercise utmost restraint," it demanded "an end to Israeli military operations and the early withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza."   

The Group of Eight leaders also urged the United Nations to consider the deployment of an "international security/monitoring presence" in Lebanon.   

Israel says the aim of its operation is to destroy Hezbollah, which sparked the offensive by capturing two Israeli soldiers and killing another eight in a raid last week.   

Hezbollah, or the Party God, has long been a thorn in Israel's side and was instrumental in its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 after a long and bloody occupation.   

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was working "through all channels" to seek the release of the Israeli soldiers.   

For the past days, northern Israel has come under a barrage of rocket fire from across the border in Lebanon that has killed 12 people.   

Hezbollah also claimed a rocket attack Friday on an Israeli warship enforcing the blockade that killed four sailors in another display of its military capabilities.   

Israel's arch-foe Syria, blamed by the United States and the Jewish state for backing Islamist militants, warned that any Israeli attack "will provoke an unlimited, direct and firm response using all means necessary".   

Iran also warned of "unimaginable losses" if Israel attacked Syria and accused the US of playing a "destructive role by vetoing resolutions and hence encouraging the Israeli crimes".    Israel is now fighting on two fronts after it launched a similar deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip over the capture of another soldier by Palestinian militants in late June.   

Israel also pressed on with its assault on Gaza, killing six more Palestinians in air raids and a ground incursion on Sunday and hitting the foreign ministry early Monday. At least 85 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed.   

Another Israeli soldier was killed in an explosion in the West Bank town of Nablus early Monday, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.    

Both Hezbollah and Palestinian militants holding the soldiers are demanding the release of prisoners from Israeli jails -- something Israel has rejected outright.