Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stares defiantly from posters in Burj al-Barajneh but residents say the Hezbollah leader was safely elsewhere when Israeli jets bombed the southern Beirut suburb aiming to kill him.
The Israeli military said dozens of warplanes dropped 23 tonnes of explosives on Wednesday night at a site where it said intelligence showed senior Hezbollah leaders were sheltering in a bunker.
They struck and partly destroyed a mosque and Islamic community centre being built in the poor Shi’ite area — hit for the first time during the latest war between the Shi’ite militant group and Israel.
Beirut residents heard just three large explosions and people at the site on Thursday said no one had been killed in the bombardment. Hezbollah also said in a statement none of its leaders died.
”They say this is a military target, where are the weapons? It’s a mosque for prayer,” said one resident, who declined to be named, as he surveyed the damage.
Part of the concrete structure was destroyed, its steel girders exposed. The blast uprooted trees and shattered the windows of surrounding apartment blocks.
Israel has targeted Hezbollah leaders several times since the conflict erupted on July 12, including strikes last Friday that destroyed the building housing Nasrallah’s apartment and a main Hezbollah office in southern Beirut.
‘This is my country’
With more than 300 people killed In Lebanon by Israeli forces in the last nine days, most Burj al-Barajneh residents had already left their homes and drawn down shop shutters, apparently expecting the worst.
But a few remained. ”I will not go. This is my country,” said Maha Lutf as she took photos of the damage using her cellphone. The Lebanese government says the fighting has displaced 500 000 people.
Najah Burro and her family dashed to a shelter in the basement of a nearby apartment block. ”We were terrified, shrapnel flew everywhere,” she said, unfazed by the distant thud of another explosion.
Israel has said its bombardment will last as long as necessary to free two soldiers captured by Hezbollah and to ensure the disarmament of the guerrilla group, which has killed 29 Israelis in the recent fighting.
Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets into Israel, reaching as far as the coastal city of Haifa for the first time. Nasrallah last appeared on television on Sunday after a deadly Haifa strike to say the conflict was just beginning.
”Believe me. To Haifa and beyond,” read the slogan on one of the portraits of the Hezbollah leader in Burj al-Barajneh.
Israel hits Lebanon
A token force of US marines landed in Lebanon on Thursday to evacuate Americans stranded by a nine-day-old Israeli bombardment.
It was the US military’s first return to Lebanon since it withdrew in 1984, months after a Shi’ite Muslim suicide bomber destroyed a marine barracks killing 241 US service personnel.
About 40 marines arrived on a beach in a Christian area north of Beirut at dawn to ferry about 1 200 Americans to Cyprus as part of efforts to extract US citizens caught in a war zone like thousands of other foreigners, many of Lebanese origin.
The marines, helped by Lebanese soldiers, sloshed through waves to carry women and children to the landing craft. Some frightened children cried, but many people smiled with relief.
”We are very happy to leave,” said Lebanese-born American Fadia Semaan, fleeing with her husband and three children.
”We are used to war from 30 years ago, but the kids are not,” said her husband, George.
”We are glad to be leaving, but also very sad. We left a lot of family behind with no food or money or anything else.”
Hezbollah, whose links to Iran and Syria raise fears the current conflict could spread, has not impeded the exodus of foreigners trapped in Lebanon by Israeli bombing of ports, airports and roads. Israel is under pressure not to endanger the land and sea escape routes organised by embassies requesting safe passage for bus convoys to Syria and ferries to Cyprus, Greece or Turkey. – Reuters