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Trading Shots, Talking Diplomacy in Middle East; U.N. Appeals for $150 Million in Aid for Middle East; U.S. Mission to Help Evacuate Americans From Lebanon Coming to an End

Aired July 24, 2006 - 13:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Trading shots, talking diplomacy. Here's what we know on day 13 of the crisis in the Mideast.
Ground battles heat up in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops clash with Hezbollah fighters. Meantime, an Israeli military chopper crashed on the Israeli side of the border, killing two pilots. The military says it was an accident, not a shootdown.

Next stop, Jerusalem. Secretary of State Rice is heading there right now from Tel Aviv after meeting earlier with Lebanon's prime minister in Beirut. Rice says she wants the violence to end, but she's still not pressing for an immediate cease-fire.

Also, help is on the way, but much more is needed. President Bush has ordered helicopters and ships to Lebanon to provide humanitarian relief. Meantime, the United Nations has appealed for $150 million in Middle East aid.

Now, as thousands of Americans continue to hit the eject button in Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads in with pledges of humanitarian aid. Her surprise stop is just one of many headlines out of Lebanon today.

CNN's Michael Ware has the latest now from Beirut.

Michael, this has, for the longest time, been your beat. And you've met with main players on both sides of this battle.

What do you think is keeping it going right now? Is it Israel's determination to dismantle Hezbollah, or is it Hezbollah just building up stronger assets?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you basically have two very determined outfits of markedly different natures going head to head here, Kyra. You've got the Israeli defense forces, by far the most sophisticated military in this region, coming up against Hezbollah, which is the most sophisticated, the most organized, the most deeply entrenched Islamic militant group in the region.

So, this really is a battle of relative titans here in the region. And by looking that state of Hezbollah right now, we get some kind of a sense of what is the state of this war and how long it might go. And I have to say that, as it stands at the moment, Hezbollah continues to put men in the field, in the battles in the south, and here in Beirut they're still operating very effectively. And we're seeing that particularly in their media operations here in the capital -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So, let's talk more about the Hezbollah, the strengths of Hezbollah, Michael. Like you mentioned, the IDF, it has incredible air assets, it's got troops on the ground, it's got tanks. What is it Hezbollah has? Is it what's coming from Syria in Iran? Is it what it already has hidden in the bunkers? Because we haven't talked about Hezbollah air assets at all.

WARE: No. Well, clearly, Hezbollah has no air assets, but it certainly has indirect fire capability, which is what we're seeing with the onslaught of the Katyusha rockets that are striking Israel.

Hezbollah's arsenals are an unknown quantity. The only thing that can be said with any kind of surety is that they are large, they're formidable, and they're heavily protected. As Israeli commanders have said, we can pound and pound their arsenal. Even if we take out 50 percent of their weapons that still leaves thousands.

And what we're seeing is an extremely disciplined and extremely well organized and a relatively effective guerilla outfit that is fighting on home soil against -- against a foe that it knows intimately. And it's been down this road before. So, this is a resilient enemy for the Israeli defense forces -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And the open-ended question, finally, Michael, any idea on how long this could go?

WARE: Well, that's the big question, clearly. But, so far, we're not seeing either side take a decisive advantage.

We're seeing the Israelis making surgical strikes inside Lebanon. But it's heavy going. They're meeting very stiff resistance from bunkers, from trenches. Their armor is being ambushed. We're seeing clear signs of ongoing Hezbollah command and control.

So, right now, the Israelis seem to be quite some distance away from achieving their goal of crippling Hezbollah. And as the Israelis keep saying, they're in this for the long haul -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Michael Ware.

And no doubt, so are you, live from Beirut.

Appreciate it, Michael.

Well, more Hezbollah rockets fell on northern Israel today.

CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney is in Haifa -- Fionnuala.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We'll, Kyra, it's been day 13, and the rockets haven't stopped falling across not just Haifa, but across the northern band of Israel. All the major towns and communities have been hit, one third of the country that houses the petrol, chemical and heavy industries of Israel. It would appear that there are a lot of people under bunkers right now, some of them 24/7. In Haifa, itself, it's been pretty much business as usual, and I say that as an inadvertent comment. One rocket fell near Haifa, but overall, eight people were injured lightly across northern Israel, 64 people being treated for shock.

The focus now switching to Jerusalem for the time being, at least on the diplomatic front, where Condoleezza Rice is expected. She's due to have meetings with the Israeli prime minister, the defense minter, the foreign minister. And then she will go to the Ramallah in the West Bank later on Tuesday afternoon for a meeting with the Palestinian Authority president about the situation in Gaza, much of which has been overshadowed about what is taking place along the Lebanese-Israeli border -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Fionnuala, thank you so much.

Well, the United Nations is calling for millions of dollars in aid for the Middle East, and the U.N. secretary-general has been talking to the leaders of Iran and Syria about this crisis.

CNN Senior United Nations Correspondent Richard Roth with more now -- Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary-general, telephoned the Syrian president and Iran's foreign minister, but no details given on those phone chats. The secretary-general is headed to Rome in a few hours for that big conference on Wednesday for the way forward.

Kofi Annan discussed with reporters the situation and pretty much said he's got some proposals regarding the international force that some have talked about. There's just a lot to talk about in Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: There are many ideas being put forward. I have my own ideas, the Americans have ideas, the Egyptians have put forward proposals. And I'm sure by the time we get to Rome, others will come forward with ideas. What is important that we leave Rome with a concrete strategy as to how we're going to deal with this, and we do not walk away empty handed and, once again, dash the hopes of those who are caught in this conflict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Annan said everyone has to agree on a package that can also be simultaneously implemented with parallel steps. The U.S. has some concerns about the sequencing of events. And Annan says Iran and Syria still have to be part of any type of solution. "How do you disarm Hezbollah?" he asked -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Richard Roth, live from the U.N.

Appreciate it, Richard. Meanwhile, the rockets are flying from both the Israeli side and from Lebanon, and right in the middle of it is CNN's John Roberts. You heard him earlier right here on LIVE FROM.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SR. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're with an artillery battery right now that is somewhere along the border between Israel and Lebanon that just within the last couple of minutes started opening up again. The guy behind me is firing, too, and we're only about 50 feet away. So, if it -- if it hits me just a little bit, there's a real pressure shock wave that comes off of the front -- those barrels. That one was one behind me.

So, if I get hit a little bit, don't worry about it. It's just a little bit of a pressure shock wave coming off of it.

What this battery has been doing for the last few days is -- really, its mission is twofold. It's laying down -- suppressing fire on those Katyusha rockets which have been firing from Lebanon into Israel, some 98 of those today. As well, it's been putting down -- covering fire in front of the Israeli defense forces -- that's what I said. It's been laying down covering fire, fire missions in front of those Israeli defense forces as they push deeper into Lebanon.

They took the town of Maroun al-Ras yesterday and declared that they -- they controlled that, and then pushed on from there now toward Bint Jubeil, which is a town that's a Hezbollah stronghold, six kilometers, so it's about three miles, three and a half, four miles inside the border from Israel into Lebanon. That really is a Hezbollah stronghold, so the Israeli defense force believes if it can get control of that town, it may have a pretty good effect of lowering those number of Katyusha rockets that have been flying over from Lebanon into Israel -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John, I know it's going to be ongoing here, and hopefully you can hear me OK. I'm just curious if you can give us some sort of insight on how the intelligence is working.

Is it -- is it going throughout the day, throughout the night? Are they talking with command and control? The centers based in IDF locations there in Jerusalem, and as they get the intelligence they fire? Or kind of tell us the strategies behind what's happening.

ROBERTS: OK. I'll give you a little bit of an idea within the bounds of Israeli censorship as to how this whole thing works.

They've got eyes in the sky, these drones, as well. There's listening posts all over -- all over Israel.

They have missions on the ground as well. And they also have other sensors in other areas that are able to triangulate the fire of these Katyusha rockets. And when they get that triangulation, they're given orders. They set the gun sites -- they've actually been on target all day, and they really haven't changed that too much. And then they call in either suppressing fire for those Katyushas, or, as the Israeli defense forces advance forward toward Bint Jubeil, they'll call for artillery fire to soften up the area in front of them. And these M-109 American-made 105 -- 55 millimeter Howitzers are so accurate that you could literally walk in these troops as they advance along the front line.

You can lay down a cover of artillery fire, 300, 400 yards out in front of these troops. And they have been able to do this since the Vietnam War. Artillery fire from the American side has historically been incredibly accurate.

So, the forces oon the ground will say, we've got some trouble up ahead, we can see some Hezbollah forces, we need you to lay down some -- a fire mission for us, some covering fire. They'll walk that in ahead of the Israeli forces, they'll soften up the territory.

And, I'll tell you, if you think it's loud on this side of the border, you've got to be on the receiving end of some artillery. I saw that a little bit during the Iraq war three years ago. It's incredibly frightening when this stuff comes in. And they use it sometimes as scare tactics, as well, to try to drive Hezbollah back from a strategic area that they're trying to get control of.

And Kyra, I've got to tell you that it's very effective strategy, with the exception that trying to hit those Katyusha rockets is very difficult, because they put out a very small infrared signature during the daytime when the sun is high. That's why they don't fire them at night. It would be very easier to see.

And they are so portable, either on the back of a truck, you can put them on the back of a car and set them up. or one or two people can carry a few Katyusha rockets. So that's why it's so difficult to get a handle on all of this.

And Hezbollah also had six years to really develop an infrastructure in southern Lebanon as well. The entire time that Israel has been out of the area, Hezbollah has been able to really dig in. And some of the Israeli forces I've been talking to have said they are not just a terrorist group, they are a terrorist army -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, the guys behind you, John, as these operations carry out, how soon do they know if, indeed, they've hit what they've wanted to hit? I mean, is there any way to calculate in real time if, indeed, they're nailing their targets?

ROBERTS: There is when they do a covering fire mission, because they've got forces on the ground or advance scouts that are out there saying where they want the fire to come in. They get immediate feedback on that.

In terms of getting the Katyushas, it's really kind of hit and miss, because they may get a position triangulated, and by time they get the fire on that position the rocket launcher could be long gone. PHILLIPS: Any idea of how many of those Katyusha launch pads could be out there, John? I mean, are there hundreds, are there dozens? There's just no way to tell?

ROBERTS: No, it's anybody's guess. They're estimated to have 10,000 to 12,000 Katyusha rockets on the other side. Then they've also got some Fajar rockets, which are the larger rockets in the range of more than 200 millimeters.

A couple of those have been fired. They carry quite a heavy warhead on them.

But in terms of the Katyusha rockets, you could have a bunker of them in a forest, in a farmer's field, underneath a house somewhere that you would never suspect. And they can just go in there and they can set those up, fire them off and then move on somewhere else within the space of an hour or two.

So, it really is difficult to get an a handle on where these launch sites are -- or how may be -- or how many there really are of them, because it's very fluid. You can put out as many as you have personnel to be able to man these weapons systems.

PHILLIPS: Our John Roberts, right there on the border of Israel and Lebanon.

John, thanks so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, U.S. Marines have been helping evacuate Americans from Lebanon. That mission is coming to an end. So what's next for U.S. troops in the region?

CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre live from his post once again -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the mission to evacuate Americans from Lebanon is not over, but it is winding down. And the U.S. military support of that mission is being curtailed now. The focus is shifting to the delivery of humanitarian aid. And today, the State Department said the focus of that, the initial emphasis, will be on delivering medical supplies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM CASEY, U.S. STATE DEPT.: We have seven members of a disaster assistance response team that arrived in the region on the 23rd. They are going to be performing an assessment to see how the U.S. government can best assist effected populations.

But in addition to that, we also got as an immediate contribution two medical kits that are scheduled to arrive in Lebanon in the next 36 hours. Each of those kits contains medicine, intravenous fluid, some reusable medical equipment, and supplies for approximately 10,000 people for three months. And they were specifically designed to meet emergency medical needs in crisis situations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: That shipment of medical supplies is supposed to go out on one of two ships tomorrow from Cyprus to Lebanon. Either the Victoria, which is a chartered swift --- very fast ferry, or the high- speed vessel Swift, the U.S. military vessel. But Pentagon officials say don't expect to see any airlift of supplies into any remote areas, and don't expect to see any of the warships delivering supplies, those big ships that are off shore that we use for evacuation.

For now, the U.S. military will simply be supporting the State Department as they shuttle supplies in through the Port of Beirut to give to nongovernmental organizations for distribution in Lebanon. They're not expecting to put any U.S. troops on the ground to give out those supplies -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.

Thanks, Jamie.

In the line of fire, under fear of attack, hospitals struggle to treat the wounded as the Middle East crisis continues.

More on LIVE FROM straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, the images from war can be deeply disturbing, and that's the case in our next report. For many civilians, there's no safe passage, caught in the crossfire as the battle rages on in the Middle East.

CNN's Karl Penhaul reports from Tyre, Lebanon. And again, we want to caution you, the images you're about to see are extremely difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Hezbollah rockets soar toward Israel. Minutes later, the response from Israeli jets.

There were tit-for-tat strikes throughout Sunday. Earlier in the day, smoke billowed over Tyre's outskirts after another Israeli bombardment. The target apparently this car. It was still smoldering when we arrived.

Just yards away in the hospital, more civilian casualties maimed in airstrikes in a war where neither side seems to be pinpointing its attacks. '

The sobs of a mother, the cry of her baby daughter, and the scream of her son. Through her tears, Nuhada Mansour (ph) sends a plea to Allah. Medics have just told her that her husband Mohammed was killed. Her 9-year-old son Mahmoud (ph) is so badly burned he can't open his eyes, and doctors say he's hallucinating. Doctor Wahid Nabjeya (ph) claims the Israelis have packed their bombs with chemicals to burn their victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the effect of -- this is (INAUDIBLE).

PENHAUL: International rules of war forbid the use of weapons that cause indiscriminate suffering. There's no specific reference, though, to phosphorous.

The Israeli defense forces say its weapons and ammunition conform to international war. I'm unable to get independent confirmation of Nabjeya's (ph) allegation, but it's a widely held view here.

"There's a smell of phosphorous and the wound is black, and it smells," he tells me. "It's really an atrocious war. Only the civilians are suffering," he says.

(on camera): This is another vehicle that was apparently hit in the same airstrike. But the vehicle that the Mansour (ph) family was traveling in is a few hundred yards down this road. But we can hear Israeli warplanes buzzing overhead right now, so it may be a little too dangerous to travel down there.

(voice over): Doctors tell me the Mansour (ph) family had been trying to drive in to Tyre to escape bombing close to their village.

When I returned to the hospital ward, Nuhada Mansour (ph) is helping tend to her 8-month-old baby. She's dropped off to sleep for a few moments, sucking on her pacifier. Doctors say Mareer (ph) and brother Mahmoud (ph) will survive, but they may be scarred for life.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Tyre, southern Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, CNN asked the Israeli military to respond to the Lebanese doctor's accusation that Israeli shells contain phosphorus. The IDF said, "All IDF weapons and ammunition comply with international law."

On either side of the Israeli-Lebanese border, hospitals are taxed to the limit. Countless patients arrive in need of treatment, while missiles continue to fall.

Paula Hancocks filed this report from Haifa, Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This woman just lost part of her leg in a rocket attack, her limb brought in the ambulance behind.

Doctors move the line of beds outside, ready for the next casualties close behind. Some are in shock. Others clearly closer to the impact. But the patients are not out of danger even inside. The hospital is close to Haifa's sea front and very close to where rockets have hit before.

RAFAEL BEYAR, DIRECTOR RAMBAH MEDICAL CENTER: This is the first time ever in the history of this hospital that it has been under real attack, not far away from this region itself.

HANCOCKS: The air raid siren is barely audible in the Children's Leukemia Ward. A loud speaker tells patients to go into a safe ward.

There's no bomb shelter in this hospital, just ordinary rooms away from windows. Just minutes after the rockets hit, contractors rush once again to cover north facing windows, to prevent them from shattering.

This used to be the maternity ward, but it faces north, which means it faces Lebanon. Now, since rockets have been falling regularly on Haifa, that department has been moved further into the hospital. And doctors tell me that is the plan, to try and leave as few patients as possible on this side of the building.

Sammy (ph) was in critical condition when he arrived here at the beginning of the week. A pellet from a Katyusha lodged in the wall of his heart.

He tells me he's scared every time he hears the siren, he's scared the next rocket will hit him.

Doctors have no choice but to keep working literally in the line of fire.

DR. ALON BEN NON, HAIFA SURGEON: When you treat a patient, this patient becomes the center of your world. You don't do, you don't think about anything else. It doesn't matter if you were bombed or there is a siren, there is the patient, the team, and that's it.

HANCOCKS: Doctors work feverishly inside to treat the wounded whose relatives wait with anguish outside.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Haifa, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: From the air and on the ground, no sign of a letup in Israel's offensive in Lebanon. How far is Israel willing to go? We're going to try and get some answers from its U.N. ambassador coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Back to our coverage of the Middle East crisis in a moment, including my interview with Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.

But first, we're seeing a major rally on Wall Street. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange to tell us why.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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