The Israeli military continued to hit targets in southern Lebanon on Friday, July 21, and warn residents to head northward.

Israel continued to drop leaflets warning residents of southern Lebanon to leave their homes.

Israel Calls Up Reserves, a Sign of Wider Ground Raids

JERUSALEM, July 21 —With small units already operating in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military massed armored vehicles near its northern border today and called up several thousand reserve soldiers, suggesting that expanded ground operations and extended combat may lie ahead.

The heavy fighting, now in its 10th day, showed no signs of letting up. The Israeli Air Force blasted targets throughout Lebanon today, and for the second day, dropped leaflets in Hezbollah-dominated areas of south Lebanon warning residents to move north of the Litani River. The leaflets also hinted at the prospect of wider Israeli ground operations.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, most of them Shiite villagers, live south of the river, which is about 12 miles north of Lebanon’s border with Israel. Many already have fled, and more are leaving daily.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, continued to rain rockets on northern Israel.

Israeli jets hit Shiite districts in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the eastern Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon around sunrise. The Israelis also bombed the Mdeirej bridge on the main Beirut-Damascus highway, which had already been hit twice before.

Counting at least 12 Lebanese killed today, about 350 people have so far lost their lives in the Israeli air, sea and ground assault throughout Lebanon. The great majority of those killed were civilians, according to Lebanese officials. An estimated half-million Lebanese throughout the country have fled their homes.

While fires burn from fuel storage tanks from an earlier bombing run, an Israeli air strike hits the runway of Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut.

The face-off between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalated sharply on July 14 as Israeli soldiers, above, fired shells toward targets in Lebanon and Hezbollah shelled northern Israel.

Israel Widens Scope of Attacks Across Lebanon

METULA, Israel, Sunday, July 16 — Expanding the reach of its airstrikes, Israel on Saturday hit coastal radar installations in northern Lebanon that it said were targeting its warships and early Sunday bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israel also struck roads in Lebanon’s north and east on Saturday, with one attack killing at least 16 civilians, most of them children. At the same time, Hezbollah forces continued their rocket barrage into northern Israel, striking the resort city of Tiberias for the first time.

The widening conflict stirred a meeting of world leaders in Russia, where President Bush called on Syria to use its influence with Hezbollah to end the fighting. At an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, the Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa, said the participants “all decided that the peace process has failed,” and that they would turn to the United Nations Security Council for help.

Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes on Saturday, hitting Jounieh, Tripoli and other northern ports.

A Lebanese civilian convoy was hit near the coastal town of Tyre after fleeing the border village of Marwaheen, resulting in 16 deaths. The Israeli military said the area was a target because Hezbollah had used it to launch missiles, and regretted any civilian casualties. It was the deadliest single attack in the past four days of fighting.

The villagers left after the Israeli military told them to evacuate over a loudspeaker, Reuters reported.

Israeli aircraft also fired a missile at the new lighthouse in the seafront Manara district near downtown Beirut, the first time this part of the city was struck.

An Israeli artillery unit fires across the border into southern Lebanon from a position on the frontier in Zaura, northern Israel.

Israeli Forces Enter Lebanon After 2 Soldiers Are Seized

JERUSALEM, July 12 — With two more soldiers captured today, Israel launched a major military offensive on a second front, sending armored forces into southern Lebanon in response to a brazen border raid by the militant group Hezbollah that killed at least seven soldiers in addition to those abducted.

The new Israeli incursion came on a day when the army was still expanding its two-week-old operations in the Gaza Strip, seeking the return of a soldier captured by Palestinian militants inside Israel on June 25. More than 20 Palestinians were killed in Gaza today, most in airstrikes and many of them civilians, according to Palestinian medical officials.

Hezbollah’s assault on Israeli soldiers inside Israeli territory bore similarities to the raid by the Palestinians last month, and suddenly, the crisis on Israel’s southern flank had essentially been replicated on its northern border, ratcheting up tensions even further.

Bombs Explode on Trains in India, Killing Scores

NEW DELHI, July 11 — A string of powerful explosions ripped up and down the spine of Mumbai’s commuter train system during rush hour today, bringing India’s financial capital to a panicked standstill and resurrecting memories of bloodbaths past.

No firm casualty figures were available immediately. The state’s top police official, P.S. Pasricha, said on Indian television that at least 70 people had died from the bomb blasts. The chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, said injuries could be as high as 300. The Associated Press reported a death toll exceeding 130.

It was quickly apparent however that the attacks were as cold-blooded as they were well-coordinated. The high-intensity blasts struck seven trains, along the western railway line of the city’s commuter train line, all within minutes of one another, between 6 and 7 p.m. local time, during peak traffic. Every day, more than six million people ride the trains in Mumbai, also known as Bombay, making it among the busiest public transportation system in the world. The death toll is certainly expected to climb.

Liftoff: Discovery soars on Fourth of July on first shuttle flight in year

July 4, 2006 (Last Updated: 3:34:45 PM) (CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) - In a majestic Independence Day liftoff, Discovery and its crew of seven blasted into orbit Tuesday on the first space shuttle launch in a year, flying over objections from those within NASA who argued for more fuel-tank repairs.

NASA's first-ever Fourth of July manned launch came after two weather delays and last-minute foam trouble that added to worries that have dogged the space agency since Columbia was doomed by a flyaway chunk of fuel tank insulation foam 3 1/2 years ago.
Discovery thundered away from its seaside pad at 1:38 p.m. CDT