Israeli attack shattersMideast peace process

Israeli attack shattersMideast peace process
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

TYRE, LEBANON, FEBRUARY 9: The peace process in the Middle East lay in tatters as a conflict between Israel and Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon escalated to threaten civilians in both countries.

Lebanon was hit again late yesterday, and braced for a second night of punishing attacks after Israel lost another soldier and an allied militiaman to Hezbollah.

The Israeli government decreed a state of emergency in the north of the country along the Lebanese border.

Israel also gave its army broad powers in anticipation of possible new air raids over Lebanon after its latest losses, Israeli public television reported.

"Apparently the message (Israeli) Prime Minister Ehud Barak wanted to get across to Hezbollah and Syria by ordering raids against civilian targets in Lebanon overnight Monday to yesterday was not received," the TV's commentator said.

Israel's massive raids on Lebanon's power grid in the early hours of yesterday wounded 18 civilians and left much of the country without light orheating.

The Lebanese did not have long to wait to see what the next night would bring, as an Israeli Apache helicopter slammed two missiles into an 11th-floor flat used as a religious college in the Port city of Tyre, injuring four Hezbollah theology students, and sparking widespread panic.At the same time, warplanes fired missiles at Hezbollah targets in the Iqlim Al-Tuffah range, further east, police said, without mentioning casualties.