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Latest developments- Lebanon

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| Saturday, July 22, 2006 12:00 AM CDT | () comments

Latest developments

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, heading for a weekend trip to the troubled Middle East, said she would work with allies in the region to help create conditions for “stability and lasting peace.” She ruled out a quick cease-fire as a “false promise” and defended her decision not to talk to Hezbollah or Syria.

Hezbollah militants fired 11 rockets at the port of Haifa, wounding five people and damaging shops and office buildings.

A U.N. observation post just inside Israel was struck during fighting. The post was severely damaged, but the Ghanaian troops manning it were inside bomb shelters and were unhurt.

Israeli warplanes pounded Lebanon’s main road link to Syria with missiles and set passenger buses on fire, and part of Lebanon’s longest bridge collapsed. Strikes in south Beirut killed one person, and missiles that hit a village near the border with Israel, Aita al-Shaab, killed three, officials said.

— Two Apache attack helicopters collided in northern Israel, killing one air force officer and injuring three.

— Israel said relief supplies will be allowed into Lebanon. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said his country was dispatching urgent aid by air and sea. The first international Red Cross relief convoy to reach the besieged southern Lebanese city of Tyre arrived after a six-hour journey over war-damaged roads from Beirut, a spokesman said.

— The United States prepared to ship about 5,000 Americans from Beirut to nearly complete the evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon as the international exodus reached a peak.

— In Gaza, Israeli forces were pulling out of a refugee camp, leaving destruction behind after a two-day sweep killed at least 15 people, most of them militants.