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CNN Sunday Morning
No Letup in Violence in the Middle East
Aired July 23, 2006 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: There is no letup in the violence in the Middle East today. Attacks coming from both sides and as you can see, Israeli tanks are lined up along the Lebanon border, poised for a possible all-out invasion. Good morning from the CNN Center right here in Atlanta. We want to thank you for joining us today. It is Sunday, July 23rd. I'm Betty Nguyen.
RICHARD LUI, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Richard Lui in for Tony Harris. We have a team of reporters for you live from the Mideast for you this morning, plus new developments in Iraq.
We'll take you live into Iraq for the latest on the mounting death toll there. Also, Saddam Hussein is hospitalized, but first the crisis in the Middle East. Here's what we know right now. More air raid sirens sounded in Haifa, Israel within just the last hour, the city was hit by a barrage of Hezbollah rockets earlier today. Two people were killed in that attack. Events also unfolding in Tyre, Lebanon. We brought you live pictures of bombing there within the last hour, too. Israeli forces have been pounding the city this morning trying to take out Hezbollah rocket-launched sites. And then there was word just within the last half hour of a firefight between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants along the Lebanese border. We are following all of these developments and we'll keep you updated as events unfold.
NGUYEN: Yes we will. So let's go straight to Haifa, Israel, for more on the latest rocket attacks there. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney joins us live and Fionnuala sirens have been sounding all morning. What is the latest?
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's just after 4:00 here in the afternoon now and within the last hour we've had three air raid warning sirens followed by explosions, impacts of rockets on the ground. No injuries reported but the first air raid siren warning this morning was followed by a barrage of rockets which killed two people and injured 12. There were six direct hits in and around the city. Three rockets falling on the technical university here known as the Technion. 12 people were injured there. A man who was driving his car was killed when shrapnel hit it and then another person working in a woodwork factory was killed when that was struck by a missile.
It's been quite a tense day here within the last half hour. We had the British foreign minister here and he was telling us why he had come to Haifa today. He also is involved very much with talks with the EU foreign ministers who are here from Germany and France. Of course, Condoleezza Rice expected here in the coming two days. And while he was here, indeed, there was another air raid warning siren and we all went back indoors to take cover. So an indication here that although the Israeli military are pounding the Hezbollah militants up in Tyre in southern Lebanon a few miles from here, from where they believe these Hezbollah rockets are being fired, it's very clear that Haifa at least is still very much in the firing range. Betty?
NGUYEN: It's a back and forth so far today. Thank you for that, Fionnuala.
LUI: And from Israel to another war zone. There are several new developments out of Iraq today, including heavy casualties from car bomb attacks and the hospitalization of Saddam Hussein. Live now to Baghdad and CNN's Arwa Damon. Arwa?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. That's right. Now that announcement came according to chief prosecutor Jaafar al- Moussawi, who said that Saddam Hussein had been hospitalized due to a hunger strike that he and three other co-defendants have been on since July 7th. However, we spoke with a member of Saddam Hussein's defense team who said that they met with their client yesterday in Baghdad, that he appeared along with the three other co-defendants to be very, very fit. They also said that this was a dangerous development. Also claiming that perhaps it was a ploy by the Iraqi high tribunal to try to keep Saddam Hussein out of court. The trial is due to resume on Monday.
We also spoke with the U.S. military. The spokesperson for detainee operations Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Curry who said that all detainees on hunger strike are monitored regularly, tested regularly. He said that Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants were medically fit to appear in court. Now this does follow a day of violence all over Iraq in which at least 50 Iraqis were killed in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk. 18 Iraqis killed, over a hundred wounded, this from the Iraqi police, after a car bomb detonated outside of a courthouse at noon. The courthouse is also surrounded by a number of shops.
We are told that that was a very busy time at the time that that detonation went off. And that follows another deadly strike in the morning at 9:00 in the morning, this time in the eastern Shia slum of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad. One of the more crowded marketplaces, a suicide car bomber drove his vehicle, detonated his explosives. At least 32 Iraqis killed, another 65 wounded there. All of this violence underscoring just how dangerous normal day to day life can be in this country, Richard.
LUI: Arwa, back to Saddam Hussein. Why was he on a hunger strike? Was he still looking at the legitimacy of the courts?
DAMON: Well of course the legitimacy of the court is always being brought into question both by Saddam Hussein, the other co- defendants, as well as the defense team. They are claiming that this court is illegal, that the proceedings are illegal. They're also claiming that the defense team is not being provided with adequate security, that they are being prevented from meeting with their clients. Their main argument is that in fact this is not a legal court. It is an illegal court and the proceedings should not be allowed to go forward. Now they are saying that they will attend court if the prosecution and the chief judge agree to meet their demands. Their demands being more security for the defense team as well as the ability to communicate with their clients, Richard.
LUI: Arwa Damon in Iraq. Thank you for that.
NGUYEN: Well Israel unleashes more air strikes on Lebanon and a firefight near the border. CNN's Paula Newton joins us from northern Israel with much more on this. You're right in the thick of it. Tell us about that firefight, Paula.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have just come upon the staging area that is behind me for the Israeli army when we heard machine gunfire and then the helicopters moved in again and fired some missiles. Again, behind me we are just west of where we were before and that's the Lebanese village in Maroun Al Ras, one that the Israeli army now claims to control. The problem is though, is that Hezbollah continues to come out and engage those Israeli troops. The Israeli troops on this side of the border in Israel are still trying to get ready for what is forward movement on the border. In the meantime, they pause to continue to battle Hezbollah in that Lebanese village.
NGUYEN: Paula, talk to us about that village as Hezbollah continues to engage the Israelis that are there. At first they said, the Israelis, that they had a foothold there. Is it the terrain? Are there tunnels there? Where is Hezbollah coming from?
NEWTON: They have just drifted over the hill and, again, they are taking their positions just outside the village. When we say that the Israelis control the village itself, they will control a perimeter around the village and the roads that lead south into Israel. On the other side, going north, Hezbollah has retreated to yet another strong hold that they have deeper within Lebanon. From there they are trying to launch these attacks. Also, in and around these hills, Hezbollah has set up posts and they look directly on to the Israeli border post and that is what's going on here. When they have a chance they decide that they will take some shots at the Israeli defense forces when they feel they can take them on.
NGUYEN: It is a good description of what's going on there. Paula Newton in the northern Israel border. Thank you for that, Paula.
LUI: Well the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre has come under heavy fire this morning. CNN's Karl Penhaul has been covering it for us all this morning, this Sunday. Karl what are you seeing right now?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Richard this city throughout the morning has taken a heavy bombardment from Israeli warplanes and also more recently from Israeli artillery rounds that have been slamming into areas just south of the city. Right now, at this very moment, things are a little quieter, but five minutes ago it was a very different story. Israeli bombs and shells are still slamming into that area. It appears to have been targeted because about an hour ago now Hezbollah militia fighters fired a barrage of rockets up from that position. Those rockets obviously headed south towards the border about 10 miles away.
And so after that barrage went up about 10 minutes later, the Israelis seemed to get a feed on that position where those rockets had come from, possibly with the help of the unmanned aerial drones and then began to pound the area within about a space of seven or eight minutes. We're talking as many number of bombs, eight, nine, 10 bombs an artillery rounds have fallen on those positions. Unclear from here, though, exactly what effect they may have had in hitting that Hezbollah-fighting position, Richard.
LUI: Karl, you were telling us this is part of a tit-for-tat, Tyre and Haifa. You also let us know that the mount of casualties have been growing. What's the latest, we were hearing 130 before in Tyre alone.
PENHAUL: Exactly. It's difficult to get an exact tally of the numbers of dead here because nobody seems to be putting an exact count on it. There are three or four hospitals here in the city operating independently. And city hall really isn't functioning in a sense that they're not really carrying out statistics on numbers of dead, wounded and refugees and civilians needing help here. But what we did see, one hospital announced in Tyre just this morning, that 20 more civilian casualties arriving at that hospital. One middle-aged man also died. That was after doctors say Israeli planes bombed some civilian cars that were heading into the city from surrounding villages.
In one ward we saw three members of the same family that had been hit, the mother, her 8-month-old baby and 9-year-old son. Doctors say that the baby and the son have suffered severe burns and they say that the cause of those burns may be linked to some kind of phosphorous in the bombs that Israel is using, but there is no independent confirmation of that, Richard.
LUI: All right thank you very much, Karl Penhaul there watching a very heavily-battered Tyre there in the southern part of Lebanon.
NGUYEN: Well you can see the smoke in the background there on the hillside. We do also have a remarkable story about a family that just refused to be denied passage as they fled Lebanon.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was the middle of the night. The main roads were all gone. So we had to take, like, short routes and we were going like on the mountain on the edges and we hear the bombs going off.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Oh yeah, bombs going off, and there was a hefty price on top of that for this escape. Try $17,000. We will talk with the mother in our next half hour. Stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: I look at the newsroom as information comes in here to us in Atlanta, CNN headquarters. CNN's international desk is monitoring the events in the Mideast around the clock and Randi Kaye has been here for many, many hours. What's the latest Randi?
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest Betty is we are working the story to try and get the very latest on this journalist that has apparently been killed along the Israeli-Lebanese border. We do have her name now. Her name is Leal Najib, she is from Lebanon, she was killed earlier today as a result of military operations along the border there. She was killed on the Lebanese side near the city of Qana, which is just east of Tyre where our Karl Penhaul is, where all of the air strikes have been going on throughout the day and throughout the night.
We are getting reports from our Arab networks that we monitor here at the international desk, LBC, the Lebanese Broadcast Corporation, Al Jazeera and several others including witnesses who are giving us this information. We are still working to independently confirm through these organizations and with our own sources that this is the case, but we are being told these reports from these other networks. Also the colleagues that have spoken with these networks are saying that she did supply photos, she was a photojournalist to several international media agencies. So we'll continue to watch that.
We also want to show you some new video that we have in to CNN. Video of aftermath from southern Lebanon. This is aftermath, this is coming to us from LBC, the Lebanese Broadcast Corporation. This is a southern suburb of Beirut in the Bekaa Valley. Many injured in the Bekaa area, this is a result of air strikes throughout the night. Israel, as you know, has been pounding Hezbollah strongholds in the south. No immediate numbers on the casualties or how severe the damage is, but you can tell just from those pictures what the Israeli air strikes have been able to do there. So that is the very latest at this hour from the CNN international desk. We are continuing to monitor and we'll bring it to you the news as we get it. Betty?
NGUYEN: I'm sure we will be speaking with you very soon Randi. Thank you.
LUI: OK for more on that journalist that we were just talking about. We're going to take you live to Beirut, Lebanon. Anthony Mills is there with the latest for us live. Anthony?
ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are hearing from Reuters and Arab media sources that, indeed, a photojournalist, a freelance photojournalist by the name of Leal Najib has been killed in an Israeli air strike to the east of the city, the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. That, of course, is the city that has been coming under intense bombardment and continues to be bombarded within the last few hours.
LUI: Anthony, if I may, there were reports yesterday from Sanjay Gupta that there was only one hospital currently in operation. Yet we also got reports today from Alessio earlier that some of the medical facilities had come under attack. Any more information on that?
MILLS: Well, just overall, the situation is very, very difficult for the Lebanese authorities to deal with. The smashing of the infrastructure has made it very difficult to get relief and immediate medical treatment to people and, of course, making it very difficult to evacuate people to the various hospitals. We understand, as well that one of the hospitals that usually deals with a significant number of people which is in south Beirut, the Sahil Hospital has suffered extensive damage as well. So, yes, overall it is very difficult for Lebanon's emergency workers and hospital infrastructure to deal with this rising number of injured.
LUI: Anthony Mills there in Beirut. Thank you very much.
Well, the Mideast crisis is topic number one for President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today.
NGUYEN: Just ahead, a live report from the White House and its response to the escalating conflict. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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SCHURENBERG: Number one best place to live in America for 2006 is Fort Collins, Colorado. It's a place where there is incredible amount of greenery. It doesn't feel like a city and yet has the nightlife of a city.
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(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
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NGUYEN: In just a few minutes the remarkable story of an American family's escape from Lebanon. With no help from the U.S. embassy a mother pays cab drivers and others $17,000 to flee the violence. Her teenage daughter talks about explosions all along the way. We do have a live interview in just a few minutes right here on this special edition of CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
LUI: And it is day 12 of the escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Here's what we know on the diplomatic front for you. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush meet with Saudi officials today at the White House to discuss this conflict. Rice arrives in the Middle East then tomorrow, meeting with Hezbollah leaders is not on her agenda. The Israeli defense minister suggests a strong international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon that could resolve this crisis. Amir Peretz made the suggestion in a meeting today in Jerusalem with the German foreign minister.
Then Jan Egeland, the head of U.N. relief efforts today toured bomb damage in Beirut. He complained that a lack of security in the region is hampering efforts to distribute food and supplies. Israel today turned down a request for U.N. relief trucks to travel south of Beirut.
War now diplomacy. As we've been reporting here, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading to the volatile Middle East region today. At first, she and President Bush will meet with key Saudi allies on that crisis. CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us from the White House with more. Kathleen, good morning.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Richard. Today does mark a clear ratcheting up of U.S. involvement in efforts to end the violence in the Middle East. After spending the weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, the president does return here to the White House this afternoon for a meeting with the Saudi foreign minister and the chief of the Saudi and National Security Council. As you mentioned, Condoleezza Rice will be joining him in that meeting and aides say this is an opportunity to, quote, "Strategize with a key partner in the region on a diplomatic solution that will address the root causes of violence and terror in the region." And that will be Rice's focus when she does head to the Middle East later today.
The Secretary of State plans meetings in Jerusalem and on the West Bank with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and also with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. And Rice then heads on to an international conference in Rome on crafting a peace and shoring up Lebanon's government. The Secretary of State, however, as you mentioned, she will not be meeting with Hezbollah, will not be meeting with Syrian leaders. Now on that last note, the White House has insisted that efforts by past administrations to meet with Syrian leaders have really not borne fruit and have largely been a waste of time. Rice is also not planning at this point on pushing for a cease- fire. Senior administration officials tell CNN that she insist that first there must be a fundamental change on the ground, i.e., that Hezbollah must be weakened before the area can truly be stabilized and then the next diplomatic stage begin.
The Bush administration, however, is ready to begin talking about an international peacekeeping force. Obviously now that Israel has said that is acceptable to them, that's something the U.S. is more interested in moving forward. Although Rice has said any such force would have to be, quote, "Robust enough to do the job and that it would likely not involve U.S. forces." Richard? LUI: Kathleen Koch at the White House. Thank you this morning.
NGUYEN: Some new developments to tell you about. Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joins us now on the phone from Beirut. And Nic I understand you have some news about humanitarian aid efforts.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Betty. Jan Egeland, the U.N. chief relief humanitarian aid coordinator he toured the bombed areas of south Beirut this morning. This afternoon he has been to a refugee center at a school. He has now been to a hospital. He says that so far the U.N. does not have permission from the Israeli government to run humanitarian convoys from Beirut to the south of the country where he says the majority of the most needy people are. He estimates about 100,000 and more people are in the Beirut area. But he says there are several hundreds of thousands of people in the south of Lebanon who at this time, the U.N. cannot get humanitarian aid to because he says the Israeli government has not given the U.N. a guarantee of safe passage. A concern of the Lebanese government is that any trucks driving south from Beirut could potentially be targeted.
Mr. Egeland says he will be announcing a huge appeal for massive funding, at least $100 million initially. He says what the U.N. plans is to run a fleet of a hundred trucks around the country delivering humanitarian aid. That he wants feeder vessels as he calls them, ships to go into Beirut and the southern port city of Tyre that is at this time one of the most affected cities in the south of the country, bombing very close to the port city of Tyre. Mr. Egeland says he wants to ship humanitarian supplies directly into that city. He says that this is an emergency refugee appeal that it will last for three months. He described the situation here as very bad. He said the total cost in the long term of the humanitarian relief effort here could be in the billions of dollars, Betty.
NGUYEN: That is staggering. Talk to us a little bit about the need in the south because earlier we spoke with Alessio Vinci in Beirut as well and he said essentially the people down in southern Lebanon are trapped. Not only because of the shelling because roads and bridges, many of them are knocked out.
ROBERTSON: There are bottlenecks for people leaving the south of the country crossing the Litani River which is about 20 miles north of the border with Israel which is expected to be the northern limit of any buffer zone that's opened up in the south. It is all the towns and villages south of that river that the Israelis have been advising the Lebanese people to leave because the bridge have been blown up. The temporary roads put in around those bridges blown up by Israeli bombs and shelling. It is making it very difficult for people to leave the southern area.
People are also trying to get to Beirut, but the roads through the mountains are very difficult because they're clogged with traffic. People are also setting up temporary shelter in the port city of Sidon. What Mr. Egeland has seen here today in Beirut is that the situation is going, in his words, from bad to worse. He said he had reports just yesterday, the most recent reports of 80,000 people now in schools in and around Beirut seeking shelter. He said that number was updated today. It's now between 110 and 120,000 people. That growth, that massive growth of the number of people just in 24 hours he says is an indication of how many people are coming up to Beirut and how the resources here are stretched. But still he says, the majority of people stuck because of the destroyed bridges, damaged roads, lack of transport, lack of fuel, many people lacking the vehicles themselves to come north. That means he says a lot of people are still stuck in the south Betty.
NGUYEN: And on top of that, this could be a race against time. Senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, joining us by phone from Beirut.
Nic, thank you for that update.
Let's get back to secretary of state's Condoleezza Rice's visit to the Mideast. Is it right on time or overdue? We for some insight on that topic, we are joined by Steven Cook in New York. He is a Douglas Dillon Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations.
We appreciate you joining us today. Thank you.
STEVEN COOK, COUNCIL OF FOREIGN RELATIONS: My pleasure.
NGUYEN: Well, first of all, let's talk about the timing of this trip. Twelve days into the conflict already and Rice is just heading this afternoon to the Mideast. Is it too late?
COOK: No, I don't think it's too late at all. I think the Bush administration was clearly interested in giving the Israelis sufficient time to achieve their military objectives, but the situation has gotten to the point where the United States is forced to step in.
NGUYEN: You talk about giving the Israelis time to make their objectives. Let me also put this to you. The Lebanese people say, basically by allowing the Israelis this time they are dying because of it. Hezbollah has said we will commit to a cease-fire, but Rice and others have said a cease-fire without long-term political solutions is not the answer. So at the same time what do you say to the Lebanese people who are dying in the midst of all of this?
COOK: Well, it's tragic, the suffering of the Lebanese people. They're suffering for the since of the Hezbollah leadership, the Syrians and Iranians. I think the secretary of state is quite right in suggesting that any type of cease-fire that does not change the status of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon is going to create a situation where we will be back with this situation once again, whether it's in six months or five years. What's happening now is essentially a replay of a clash between Israel and Hezbollah that occurred 1996. The diplomatic solution there was a cease-fire that merely changed the rules of the game. You cannot just change the rules of the game in this situation; otherwise we're going to be faced with this situation over and over and over again. NGUYEN: Well, it appears that the U.S. is walking a fine line here. On the one hand it's find a long-term solution and on the other side it is an ally to Israel and in fact is rushing delivery of precision-guided missiles to Israel. I want you to take a listen to what the British foreign minister told CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM HOWELLS, BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER: I very much hope that the Americans understand what's happening to Lebanon, the destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children, and so many people. These have not surgical strikes and it is very, very difficult, I think, to understand the kind of military tactics that have been used. You know, if they are chasing Hezbollah, go for Hezbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation and that's the difference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: So with that said, is there a fear that the anger toward Israel returned to the U.S. in the form of attacks?
COOK: Well, there's always that risk that goes on. It's clear that the bombing that the Israelis have undertaken have shifted the anger of many Lebanese away from Hezbollah which many Lebanese were upset with for bringing the wrath of the IDF down to them and has shifted that anger away from Hezbollah and onto the Israelis and the United States and of course there's always a risk that there'll be attacks on American interests or Americans in other parts of the world and even the United States. Hezbollah has proved in the past that it does have a global reach.
That being said, the United States felt that it was important for the Israelis to try to degrade or at least destroy the capability of Hezbollah, otherwise this type of instability, this type of conflict, will happen once again.
NGUYEN: Well, many analysts will tell you that the key to the conflict could lie in Syria and today, and just a few minutes ago, we learned that Syria says it is willing to help in a cease-fire and it's willing to engage in dialogue with the U.S. What is your reaction to that? Is that something that the secretary should really take in account as she heads to the Mideast?
COOK: Well, I think one of the objectives is to engage the Syrians, although she is not meeting with them, is an effort to pick the Syrians off from their Iranian allies and to get them to be constructive in this situation. It's important to recognize that the Syrians haven't attacked the Syrians for precisely this region.
I think it's a moment where the United States should rethink its strategy and talk to the Syrians on this issue, recognizing, of course, that they have in the past played both sides of the coin. They haven't been reliable, but what choice, really, at this point do we have? If we want the Syrians to be constructed we're going to have to talk to them.
NGUYEN: All right, Steven Cook, Council on Foreign Relations. Very good insight for us today, thank you for your time.
COOK: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Ahead, more live coverage of the Mideast conflict. We're checking in with Randi Kaye on the International Desk with developments there.
LUI: Also looking at what might be next and what has happened so far. Betty, we'll be looking at more analysts, our CNN military analyst general -- Brigadier General David Grange will be stopping by to give us an insight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Let's get straight to CNN's International Desk which is monitoring the events in the Middle East around the clock. Randi Kaye is there.
Randi, what's the late latest?
KAYE: Hello once again Betty, we want to take a look at the Israeli air strikes happening over the port city of Tyre. We want to take you there and show you those pictures. That's been going for some time now. At least Six Israeli bombs fell on the coastal city of Tyre. That was just in a 20-minute span, killing one civilian, wounding at least 20 others. Apparently the smoke has been rising over the city two miles east and south of the city, it could be seen.
We also want to tell you about the very latest on a journalist who was apparently killed. We're getting some reports from our networks that we've been monitoring there in the Middle East, including al Jazeera and the LBC, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. We have the name on the journalist killed, we don't have an age on her yet. Her name is Layal Nejib. She was killed earlier today, she's from Lebanon. She was killed on the Lebanese side of the border. Apparently an Israeli air strike hit near her taxi.
We want to show you this new video coming from the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. New video of the aftermath of air strikes in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, in the Bekaa Valley. Many injured in that area, as you might imagine, looking at those crumbled buildings. Air strikes occurring throughout the night, Israel pounding Hezbollah there, and its stronghold in the southern area of Lebanon. No immediate numbers there on the casualties there.
We also want to tell you interesting news coming from Syria, the main backer of Hezbollah is now calling for a cease-fire followed by diplomacy to solve all of this military conflict. Syria apparently ready to engage the United States in dialogue to solve the Lebanese crisis. The deputy foreign minister is telling this to "Reuters" today, he's quoted as saying, "Syria is ready for dialogue with the U.S. based on respect and mutual interest." He said the solution to the crisis lies in an immediate cease-fire brokered by international powers and then followed by diplomacy. This is very important because this is the first that we've heard from Syria on this issue. We are working to get more and verify this on our own. That is the very latest. We'll continue to watch the feeds, the wires, and the phones here at the International Desk -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Important information. Thank you, Randi.
LUI: And we're going build on that information from Randi Kaye.
Diplomatic sources saying Israel's offensive against Hezbollah could last for a few more weeks. For more on the strategy and how this might play out, we're going to go to CNN military analyst, retired Army Brigadier General David Grange. He's on the phone from Oak Brook, Illinois.
Very good morning to you, General.
BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID GRANGE, CNN ANALYST: Good morning.
LUI: General, we're just mentioning, two to three more week, if you were to put on your strategy hat and you've been in theaters in Asia as well as Europe before, what might the IDF be thinking right now as they go forward in the next couple of weeks?
GRANGE: Well, here's the dilemma. You have to stop the rocket fire. And when the rocket fire is hitting in cities like Tyre -- and just imagine you were given that mission, stop the rocket fire out of that city. With the thousands of people, the build-up areas, places to hide, how would you do that? And so are they going go in and occupy that city? Are they going to search, systematically, every building and look at that area, because a lot of rockets are coming from that? In the countryside, it's a little easier because you don't have as many civilians, so this is a very difficult set for the IDF and the Hezbollah. They know that. And it's going to take time to achieve that single objective right there.
LUI: General Grange, yesterday we learned that the IDF has asked the United States to expedite deliver of smart bombs. Does it mean that they will continuously bomb more or are we going to see a more increased action, if you will, on the ground going forward?
GRANGE: Well, I think there's going to -- there may not be as much bombing, but there'll definitely be more, I think, maybe more accurate bombing. The United States has the most advanced bombs around, and so if you want to do more surgical strikes and even be more careful of collateral damage you want to use the U.S. munitions. So by using the supplies of the United States, you can take it where we're supporting the war or you could take it where maybe we're providing weaponry that's more accurate that will reduce civilian casuals.
LUI: Let's look at the other side. We look at Hezbollah and Lebanon, they are getting hammered. We're still getting reports as Randi Kaye was just telling us, of attacks in that area. What is Hezbollah's strategy at this moment? Keeping on your strategy hat.
GRANGE: Well, I think when you have the Hezbollah -- see, Hezbollah, like most of those type of organizations, that's a non- nation state, they rely on the civilian infrastructure for much their logistics and for shorter communications. Sometimes it will be through a broadcast, sometimes through cellular phones. It is not military, tactical radios. It's used in the civilian backbone of communications in order to get the word out. That's one of the reasons why I would believe that there's -- those structures are being targeted.
And again, their strategy is to actually to hope that the civilian casualties, from the Lebanese people because of the perception of indiscriminate killing and regrettably, a lot of civilians have been killed, and -- but knowing the rules of engagement of the IDF, they're not allowed to purposely target civilian areas unless it has a military purpose to it and that's what -- there's the same problem the U.S. and the British had, think about it, in Iraq where you have enemy positions in (INAUDIBLE) under hospitals and things like that and it's the kind of enemy that does not abide by the rules of land warfare, so it makes it extremely difficult.
LUI: And we have seen, in Iraq, the numbers of casualties quite high, and hopefully those numbers will not be the same in the Middle East as we watch what is happening between Lebanon and Israel.
LUI: General Grange, thank you very much this morning for stopping by.
GRANGE: Sure, my pleasure.
NGUYEN: Well, an American family trapped in Lebanon spends $17,000 to get out. The woman who paid that price joins us next.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's common to see football players getting pummeled on the field. What's not so common is this: A new device to spot concussions right on the sidelines. Normally a suspected concussion calls for a trip to the E.R., but Detect inventors, David Wright and Michelle LaPlocka (ph) say their new system would mean faster results and less risk.
DR. DAVID WRIGHT, EMERG. MEDICINE, EMORY UNIV.: If you get a concussion on top of another one, that is before you recovered from you initial concussion, it can actually be lethal.
GUPTA: Researchers have also been working with the military to address the need for cognitive assessment on the battlefield. The future game plan? Using Detect to test for mild cognitive impairment, that's precursor to Alzheimer's disease, so patients can be treated sooner and more effectively.
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LUI: OK. Straight to the northern Israeli board for you right now. Paula Newton has been watching the action there.
Paula, what are you seeing?
NEWTON: More artillery fire incoming here. We are, again, just southwest of Maroun al Ras, it is that town the Israeli defense forces say that they've now controlled for more than 24 hours and yet still, Richard, the gunfight continues sporadically. We do hear machine gunfire and the Israeli defense forces confirm to us that they continue to take fire from Hezbollah.
The main problem here is that this is supposed to be a staging area on this side of the Israeli border, on the other side, in Maroun al Ras, that it is suppose to where the Israeli forces are going to move forward from this point on. The reason they say they're in there, again, to create this sort of buffer zone. But really, the amount of resistance is incredible and from what we've heard from the other side, although they continue to try and take out missiles and rockets and launchers, Hezbollah right now is just lying in wait. They come out at times to try and bait the Israeli soldiers into a fight, but it seems that the few thousand we estimate, that are over there in the other orderer are waiting for battles to come -- Richard.
LUI: Paula, can you pan the camera and show us the scene behind you with the fighting that you're talking about?
NEWTON: We can, if Luis can just move the camera over to Maroun al Ras, we're going to have a little bit of trouble because this is via broadband, Richard, but we will give it a try. And a lot -- you will have a hard time trying to see some of the explosions, though, behind me with this kind of resolution. I can assure you, though, the artillery fire has been coming in and it -- here, in the distance, you will hear the machine gunfire.
Keep in mind, the way Hezbollah (INAUDIBLE) machinery and the tanks, they will fire mortar rounds. We have even seen them fire and anti-tank missile, but most of it is that they are armed with those heavy machineguns and take their shots very carefully trying to hit those soldiers. We'll remind everyone today as well, 65 katyusha rockets and counting in Northern Israel, quite a high count for this type of day, and that killed two people and severely injured several -- Richard.
LUI: Paula Newton at the Israeli border at the north watching the action, there. Thank you very much.
NGUYEN: Well, with this fighting going on. The Lebanese are trying to get out of the Southern region. Americans are just trying to get out of Lebanon, period. A Michigan woman and her three daughters are safely out of Beirut and back in Dearborn, but it cost her $17,000.
Nadia Berry has no praise for U.S. officials coordinating the evacuation of Americans. Nadi and one of her daughter, Tania, joins us live from Detroit.
TANIA BERRY, FLED BEIRUT: Good morning ladies. Good morning.
NADIA BERRY, FLED BEIRUT: Good morning.
NGUYEN: Well, Nadia, talk to me. You were in Lebanon visiting relatives with daughters when the conflict broke out and then you tried calling the U.S. embassy there to try to get safe passage out of the country. What did you face?
N. BERRY: Actually I couldn't get through to the U.S. embassy. I tried for -- the fighting started on Wednesday. Thursday I started calling the embassy. There was -- the lines were busy constantly. I kept redialing all day. I tried Friday as well and same thing, I couldn't get through. I was -- I decided to go to the embassy and then with the fighting -- was so random my husband told me just -- I'll register you online, just try to get out of there. So I stopped trying to call because, again, people were telling me they were waiting in line, too, from the day before. So I just arranged transportation to get out of Lebanon, to go to Jordan because everybody was running to Syria and I figured that's going to be a lot of people. I'd be there for a month. So...
NGUYEN: So what cost you $17,000?
N. BERRY: I had to rent a car that cost about $2,800. Then I had to buy brand new tickets because the tickets that I had I couldn't use right away. They wanted to split us up, me and my kids. They were already terrified from what's happening, and plus, spend nights either in Italy or a couple of nights here and a couple of nights there, so I bought brand new tickets and I figured I'd waitlist for whatever I can and of course that didn't clear because...
NGUYEN: And these were first-class ticket which of course cost an arm and a leg.
N. BERRY: Right.
NGUYEN: So, and on top of that, like you said, you had to pay for transportation out of Beirut.
Tania, talk about that drive, making it out of the country. What was that like? I hear bombs were falling all around you.
N. BERRY: It was terrible. Is this for Tania?
NGUYEN: Yes.
T. BERRY: It was probably the most scariest experience of my life. We would be driving and we'd be getting calls -- it was the middle of the night and they were still bombing and we had heard bombs drop a hundred feet away from us and all of the main road his been bombed so we were taking short routes, like, around the mountain and we never know where something was going get hit. So...
NGUYEN: Nadia, you still seem shaken by the whole experience. What do you think about the American response? We spoke with many officials who say they were doing the best they can under the circumstances. What do you think about the response? It was too slow, in your eyes?
T. BERRY: Too slow for the U.S. government to be that slow and other governments got their people out a lot faster. Especially when the U.S. Government gave the Israelis the green light when there's 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon. I mean, at least have a cease-fire so that people can get out, and then again, what about the people that are in Lebanon, the Lebanese citizens?
NGUYEN: Exactly. And once you found out that Americans, indeed, were evacuating, those stuck in Lebanon, what did you think about paying $17,000 for your flight out? Well, my main concern was to get out. I didn't even think the money or the cost. I wanted my kids out of there. I didn't want them to see or get hurt.
NGUYEN: So, no regrets.
T. BERRY: No, no regrets, no.
NGUYEN: All right, Nadia and Tania Berry, we appreciate your time today. We have so much news to tell our viewers about, but we appreciate you spending a little time with us.
N. BERRY: Thank you.
T. BERRY: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Richard.
LUI: Speaking of which, Betty, we're going to go straight to Randi Kaye at the International Desk who's been watching everything on this crisis in the Middle East.
Randi, what do you have?
KAYE: Richard, we want to get back to that video that we've been showing you of the aftermath of Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon. You can see how severe some of these air strikes were. This has been going on throughout the night. A southern suburb of Beirut in the Bekaa Valley is what you're looking at. Israel has been pounding the Hezbollah strong holds in the south. No immediate numbers yet as far as casualties go.
We also want to update you on the journalist that we've been telling you about that has been killed on the Lebanese side of the border. We know that her name is Layal Nejib. We don't have an age on her yet. We're getting reports from the Arab networks that we've been monitoring, that she was killed today. She's a female freelance photojournalist as a result of the military operations there along the border has been killed apparently near the town of Qana, just east of Tyre where we've seeing some heavy air strikes. Apparently one of the air strikes hit near her taxi that she was driving in on the road. Her driver, apparently did survive. This is the first journalist reporter killed in the fighting. And back to Syria, one of the main backers of Hezbollah. CNN now confirming that Syria is calling for a cease-fire followed by diplomacy to solve this Middle East conflict, quoted as saying -- the foreign minister quoted as saying, "Syria is ready for dialogue with the United States." That's the very latest from here.
LUI: OK, Randi, covering a lot for us today on the International Desk. Thank you.
KAYE: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Right now, it is time to check in with Howard Kurtz in Washington to see what's ahead on CNN's "Reliable Sources."
Hello Howard.
HOWARD KURTZ, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Hi Betty.
Coming up: How do the media cover this far ranging war in the Middle East and are they being fair to all sides? And what about the danger to the reporters themselves? We'll talk to correspondents in the region and journalist with the Israel Broadcasting Authority and "International Arab Daily," and a Lebanese newspaper.
Plus, we'll talk to a blogger in Tel Aviv about the intensive online coverage of the conflict, all ahead on "Reliable Sources."
NGUYEN: Looking forward to it. Thank you, Howard.
KURTZ: Thanks.
LUI: And on that note, "Reliable Sources" is next. So don't go away for that.
NGUYEN: Don't go away.
Plus Fredricka Whitfield will be with you all morning with live updates on the crisis in the Middle East. Have a great Sunday.
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