Israeli ground forces reportedly enter Lebanon

A Frenchman holds his grandchild as they and other tourists wait to be evacuated from Beirut on Monday. MAYBE THESE ARE THE TERRORISTS

Israeli ground forces reportedly enter Lebanon

International presence urged as way to curb fighting

Monday, July 17, 2006; Posted: 7:33 a.m. EDT (11:33 GMT)

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- An Israeli government spokesman says its ground forces have entered southern Lebanon to attack Hezbollah bases, The Associated Press reported.

Arab television networks reported that an Israeli plane was shot down in east Beirut.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday called for an international stabilization force to go to the Mideast to help end the cross-border attacks between Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and the Israeli military.

Fighting continued Monday, with Israeli bombings of Beirut's port, an army barracks and the capital's southern suburbs, following Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern cities in Israel Sunday that left at least eight people dead.

The proposed international force would be the first step in what Annan and Blair said should be a series of actions that would stop the hostilities.

"The only way we are going to get a cessation of hostilities is the deployment of an international force to stop the bombardment of Israel and get Israel to stop its attacks on Hezbollah," Blair told reporters at a news conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, at the end of the G-8 summit.

Annan said the U.N. Security Council would have to discuss the matter but said such a force would be only a part of a comprehensive plan of action to stop the fighting across the Israeli-Lebanese border.

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