Israeli troops 'surrounded'

Ghost towns ... All the able-bodied residents of Lebanon's southern towns have fled, including Australians, leaving everything they owned behind / Jeroen Lodder / Image supplied

HEZBOLLAH guerrillas say they have surrounded an Israeli military helicopter crew after the aircraft landed near the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek amid fierce fighting late today.

The Israeli troops ran into a local hospital south of the city, a main Hezbollah stronghold, and militants encircled the building, a miitia spokesman said.

He did not say whether any were wounded or how many Israeli troops were on the ground.

Lebanese police confirmed fierce combat between the Israel soldiers and fighters for the Shiite Muslim militia south of the city.

Residents told AFP they saw the Israelis land and begin shooting and that there were several casualties.

Earlier today, police said an Israeli helicopter made a brief landing near Baalbek as battles raged between Israeli air forces and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Gunships hovering at low altitude tried to land on hilltops overlooking Baalbek but faced fierce resistance from guerrillas who opened up with anti-aircraft fire, they said.

One helicopter landed for a few moments on Ain Jawzeh hill, east of Baalbek, but was forced to flee.

Gunships also flew at low altitude while combing the road linking Baalbek to the Syrian city of Homs, attacking and setting fire to three service stations.

The aircraft had zoomed over northern Lebanon before diving over the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country where they staged 12 raids on the region of Baalbek, firing at least 24 rockets.

There was no word on possible casualties.

Earlier, during a lull in fighting before Israel resumes full airstrikes against Hezbollah guerillas, 30 Australians were evacuated from the south of the country.

But the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said it still held grave fears for an estimated 170 Australians trapped in the war zone.

The 48-hour ban on aerial bombardments, imposed by Israel after one of its strikes killed more than 50 civilians in the Lebanese village of Qana, has now expired.

The Australian embassy in Beirut took advantage of the lull to get more Australians out of the country's south.

"The Australian embassy has arranged for the evacuation of 30 Australians from southern Lebanon to Beirut, taking advantage of a temporary lull in activity," a DFAT spokeswoman said.

She said further evacuations from the area would be difficult once Israel resumed air strikes.

The Australians who escaped were believed to have been rescued from the Lebanese towns of Tyre and Sidon.

They were taken to Beirut in a fleet of cars, buses and taxis hired by the Australian embassy.

DFAT revised down the number of Australians in southern Lebanon for whom it holds grave fears from about 200 to 170.

Irsaeli forces have thrust into southern Lebanon in an expansion of their offensive, pounding towns and villages but meeting fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas.

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said today that Israel may need up to a few weeks mroe before Hizbollah is wiped out.

International pressure is building for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict which has killed more than 600 people, mostly civilians, in Lebanon. Fifty-four Israelis have died.

Mr Peres held out the possibility that a ceasefire could come about sooner, maybe within days.
"It's a matter of weeks, maybe even less. I can't give you a date," Mr Peres told reporters after meeting at the White House with Stephen Hadley, top national security adviser to President George W. Bush.

Mr Peres also met US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who said tonight that she viewed the time frame as a matter of days, not weeks.

Pressed on the contradiction, Mr Peres said: "It may be days. I didn't want to commit myself.

"The message is that we feel we are very near a decision and we feel much better about the confrontation."

Most countries have called for an immediate end to hostilities, although the United States, Israel's top backer, has said conditions must first be right for a sustainable ceasefire.

While Israel would like another 10 to 14 days for an expanded air and ground offensive, senior officials in Israel have acknowledged that the UN Security Council could intervene before then to impose a ceasefire.

Three weeks after the war erupted when Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, Israel's security cabinet agreed to step up its offensive, entailing a ground sweep six to seven km into Lebanon, a political source said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who had rejected international calls for an immediate halt to hostilities, said he saw the start of a process that would lead to a ceasefire.

"We are at the beginning of a political process that in the end will bring a ceasefire under entirely different conditions than before," he said.

European Union (EU) foreign ministers called for an immediate end to hostilities, watering down demands for an immediate ceasefire at the insistence of Britain and other close US allies.

A joint statement adopted at a rare August crisis meeting of the 25 nation bloc said: "The Council calls for an immediate end to hostilities to be followed by a sustainable ceasefire".

The Associated Press reported today that the Bush administration had claimed progress in establishing an international peacekeeping force for Lebanon.

United Nations officials announced that nations willing to contribute troops to a peacekeeping force would meet on Thursday.

An earlier meeting arranged for yesterday was scrapped after France said there was no point talking about peacekeepers with the war continuing.

The Bush administration provided little detail about what progress it said was being made. The White House said an immediate halt to the bloody fighting "doesn't seem to be in the cards."

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