Hezbollah

BEIT HILLEL, Israel -- The Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint on the road to Shaba Farms, territory that Hezbollah says belongs to Lebanon, were in good spirits yesterday, even as they turned back every civilian. The sun had not yet cleared the highest hills, but the army's artillery was already busy, firing across the border. "This is the money time," said Yudi, one of the soldiers there. The army's senior commanders confirmed yesterday that Israel has intensified efforts to inflict maximum damage on Hezbollah, just in case the faltering international attempts to achieve a cease-fire take hold and force an end to the fighting.

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Barak threatened last night to halt peace negotiations with Syria unless it restrains Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, who fired a missile into an Israeli outpost in South Lebanon earlier yesterday, killing three Israeli soldiers. "Israel will not be able to negotiate peace as long as the Syrians do not restrain the Hezbollah from acting against the Israeli army in the security zone," Barak said in a statement. Israel launched airstrikes against suspected Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The sit-in staged by Hezbollah supporters so far has done little to dislodge the U.S.-backed government, but it has managed to turn the Lebanese capital inside out - literally. Some of the poorest and most marginalized people in the country, Lebanon's Shiite Muslims, have abandoned their homes in suburban slums to camp out on the nation's most expensive bit of real estate. Often trudging through Lebanese history as war refugees, they have managed to displace Lebanon's wealthiest shop owners.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria has a friend in Ranar Munzir. Gripping a photo of Syrian President Bashar Assad close to her heart, the 23-year-old student from eastern Lebanon was one of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who poured into the streets of central Beirut yesterday to show her support for Lebanon's neighbor and self-proclaimed protector. Demonstrators swung from palm trees and light posts waving red-and-white Lebanese flags, chanted anti-American slogans and held placards that read "Thank you Syria," "Thank you Assad" and "Syria & Lebanon brothers forever."

JERUSALEM -- A U.S.-arranged bid to prevent a dangerous escalation of fighting in south Lebanon collapsed yesterday after a guerrilla rocket attack killed an Israeli soldier, the seventh this year. Immediately after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak halted Israel's participation in a five-nation meeting intended to restrain the war inside Lebanon between the Jewish state and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. The meeting, the product of intense U.S. efforts after a week of rising violence in south Lebanon, was intended to reaffirm 1996 rules aimed at limiting casualties and damage from the fighting there.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Israel blockaded Lebanon's coastline, bombarded its international airport and staged hundreds of air raids in a wide-ranging assault yesterday aimed at forcing the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah to free two captured Israeli soldiers. A defiant Hezbollah retaliated by raining more than 100 Katyusha rockets on northern Israel, killing two people and injuring dozens of others. At least one rocket hit the large coastal city of Haifa, previously out of the projectiles' range, causing no injuries but raising alarm at the prospect of deadly strikes on major Israeli urban centers.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- In one swoop, the Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah took over a large section of Lebanon's capital yesterday, altering the country's political balance and demonstrating a level of military discipline and efficiency that left the pro-Western government struggling to exert its authority. In a space of 12 hours, the Iranian-backed group dispatched hundreds of heavily armed Shiite fighters into the western half of the capital, routing pro-government Sunni militiamen, destroying opponents' political offices and shutting down media outlets loyal to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and to Sunni leader Saad Hariri's Future movement.

JERUSALEM - A high-ranking Israeli army officer has been arrested and accused of spying for Hezbollah, a radical Muslim group that is considered one of Israel's most implacable enemies. Word of the unidentified lieutenant colonel's arrest and those of at least nine other people came from his lawyer, Amnon Zichroni, who told Israeli news media yesterday that the man was taken into custody six weeks ago on suspicion of providing information on troop deployments and other sensitive military matters in exchange for drugs and money.

JERUSALEM - Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon fired an anti-tank missile yesterday that hit an Israeli military bulldozer clearing roadside explosives in the border region. One Israeli soldier was killed and another was seriously wounded, Israeli officials said. The incident stirred tensions along the uneasy frontier and raised the possibility of an Israeli military response. The episode also increased friction between Israel and Syria, which maintains a large military presence in Lebanon and supports Hezbollah.

TEL AVIV, Israel -- The Israeli army said yesterday that its investigation had found that mapping errors were behind the shelling of a U.N. camp that killed nearly 100 Lebanese refugees last month. Artillery gunners were relying on incorrect maps and distance estimates when they fired at Hezbollah guerrillas attacking Israeli troops, senior army officers said.Thrown on the defensive by a draft U.N. report suggesting that the base had been deliberately targeted after the guerrillas took shelter there, the Israeli officers asserted at a news conference yesterday that the shelling was an accident in the heat of battle.