Post by Mech on Jul 14, 2006 17:20:01 GMT -5
Gruesome scenes after Israeli air raids on south Lebanon
By Jihad Siqlawi
Agence France-Presse
TYRE — A baby was sliced into three and body parts hung from olive trees as the full force of Israeli military might hit rural southern Lebanon Thursday.
In the deadliest Israeli strikes in a decade, at least 47 people were killed.
As the south came under a relentless air assault that destroyed vital bridges linking one area to another, ordinary life came to a standstill as terror-stricken residents hid indoors and businesses remained closed.
The silence that reigned over southern Lebanon was broken only by the sounds of violence and its aftermath — bomb blasts and the wail of ambulance sirens.
Israel's offensive, prompted by the capture of two of its soldiers by the group Hizbollah in a bid to secure a swap of prisoners, was the most serious since it ended 22 years of occupation in southern Lebanon in 2000.
On a charred mattress rest the remains of a burned baby girl, her arm to one side. Her upper body is at one end of the bed and her lower body at the other.
Police said the 10-month-old and six other family members were killed when an Israeli missile hit their home in the usually quiet village of Baflay, near the coastal city of Tyre.
The baby, whose name has not yet been released, was taken to a hospital morgue in Tyre. Her body has not yet been claimed by relatives.
As dawn broke over the sleepy village of Dweir, near the main central market town of Nabatiyeh, tragedy hit the household of Adel Akkash, a Shiite Muslim cleric.
An Israeli missile destroyed his home, and neighbours who rushed to help met with a gruesome scene. Akkash, his wife and their seven young children were all dead.
Relief workers were called in to recover the remains of Akkash's seven children from the family olive grove, an AFP correspondent said. Small severed body parts were recovered from the branches of olive trees, and placed in plastic bags.
Eleven members of another family — including five children — met a similar fate in Zibqine, a small village southeast of Tyre.
A missile destroyed the home of a former mayor of the village who died a few years ago, burying his entire family under the rubble.
Hours after the attack, the dusty bodies of his wife, children and nephews were retrieved from the debris by relief workers who took them to a hospital morgue.
Three other relatives were found wounded, and taken to hospital.
"We were all hiding in the shelter when the house was destroyed by the Israeli jets," one of them told AFP.
"What did we do to deserve this barbaric attack on civilians? There are no resistance [fighters] here," he said.
Police said Israeli air strikes also killed two civilians in Baraashit, five in Shour and three in Srifa, three villages near Tyre.
Six civilians were wounded and taken to hospital after air strikes destroyed three houses in the village of Maarub, east of Tyre, police said.
"The Israelis are suffocating us. They destroyed our roads and bridges. We cannot even flee," said southern resident Ahmad Kamel.
"They are killing civilians because they cannot kill Hizbollah fighters. They want to bring us back to the occupation era. We cannot take this injustice any more. Will the world continue to watch them kill children without doing anything?" asked Jamil Hassan.
Friday-Saturday, July 14-15, 2006