Israel, Hezbollah fight nearing an all-out war

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israeli airstrikes hit central Beirut for the first time Saturday and cross-border rocket barrages struck deeper inside Israel, reaching the previously unscathed city of Tiberias as the confrontation between Hezbollah guerrillas and the Jewish state spiraled toward all-out war.

Fueling fears that the conflict could spill over into regional strife, Israeli officials asserted that Iranian personnel had helped fire a missile Friday that crippled an Israeli naval vessel off the coast of Lebanon and killed at least one sailor. Israel and the United States have accused Iran, Hezbollah's chief patron, of bearing ultimate responsibility for the Shiite Muslim group's actions.

With diplomacy yielding little fruit, Israeli forces and Hezbollah traded heavy blows for a fourth consecutive day. Israeli warplanes attacked across Lebanon, killing dozens of people and further demolishing roads and infrastructure — including the last bridge on the main Beirut-Damascus highway — along with Hezbollah offices. Much of Lebanon was dark because airstrikes have knocked out power stations.

Israeli warplanes swooped in over the Mediterranean coast Saturday afternoon to attack grain silos, ports and an iconic lighthouse.

Civilians on both sides bore the brunt of the violence. A single Israeli airstrike killed at least 15 people fleeing the fighting in south Lebanon, 12 of them children. Lebanese officials said more than 100 people had been killed in four days of airstrikes. Four Israeli civilians have died.

Hezbollah denied Israeli media reports that its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, was hurt in an airstrike today, Al-Jazeera television reported.

Three rocket barrages hit the Israeli resort city of Tiberias, injuring eight people and sending frightened sunbathers fleeing the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Israeli officials warned that Tel Aviv, 70 miles inside Israel, could be hit.

At least 90 rockets fell Saturday across northern Israel, pushing the total since the fighting broke out to more than 400, the Israeli military said. Tens of thousands of northern Israel's 750,000 people are spending much of their time in bomb shelters or in their homes, venturing out only to quickly stock up on supplies. Many others sought refuge in the south.

In one sign the West expects a drawn-out battle, the U.S. Embassy said it was looking into ways to get Americans in Lebanon to Cyprus. France already decided to send a ferry from Cyprus to evacuate thousands of its nationals. The British were sending two warships, including the carrier Illustrious, toward Lebanon, in apparent preparation for evacuations.

The fighting was triggered by a Hezbollah cross-border raid on Wednesday that left eight Israeli soldiers dead and two in Hezbollah's captivity.

Israel declared the raid an act of war by Lebanon, whose leaders say they are powerless to rein in Hezbollah, which is also a partner in the government.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora implored the international community to save his country from ruin.

"We call for an immediate cease-fire backed by the United Nations," an impassioned Siniora said Saturday evening. In a counterweight to the enraged declaration of war issued by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah the previous night, Siniora spoke with despair of civilian suffering: "Destruction is raining down around the clock."

The Western-backed prime minister, criticizing both Israel and Hezbollah, also pledged to reassert government authority over all Lebanese territory, suggesting his government might deploy the Lebanese army in the south, which Hezbollah effectively controls.

That would meet a repeated U.N. and U.S. demand. But any effort by Saniora's Sunni Muslim-led government to use force against the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas could trigger another bloody civil war. Many fear the 70,000-strong army itself might break up along sectarian lines, as it did during the 1975-90 civil war.

The Arab League said after an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday that the peace process had failed in the Middle East and called on the U.N. Security Council to intervene.

Israel has asserted that Iran was a driving force behind Hezbollah's attacks. On Saturday, Israeli officials made their most specific allegation yet of Iranian involvement, saying an Iranian military or technical team helped Hezbollah fire an Iranian-made radar-guided missile that struck an Israeli warship off the Lebanese coast.

"We have particular knowledge that they assisted them," said a senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said more than 100 Iranian troops are helping Hezbollah.

Iran denied that it had any troops in Lebanon or that it had anything to do with the missile strike. State television in Iran said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the Israeli offensive. "The Zionist regime behaves like Hitler," it quoted him as saying.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.