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Airstrike on Lebanon's Roads, Bridges; Israeli Ground Offensive Set to Intensify; The Hunt for Hassan Nasrallah
Aired August 04, 2006 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Pummeled. The Israeli military blasts Lebanese towns from the north to the south. One of the last major routes into Lebanon now lies in ruins.
A massive display. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Baghdad turn out in support of Hezbollah and its fiery leader.
And crawling towards a compromise. The U.S. secretary of state says it's just a matter of days now before a solution to the conflict is found.
I'm Hala Gorani, reporting live from Beirut. My colleague, Fionnuala Sweeney, in Haifa, will join us in just a bit.
First, though, the latest on the conflict in the Middle East as we continue our in-depth coverage of the war in southern Lebanon and other parts of the country, as well as northern Israel.
To the north and south in Lebanon, bridges were struck this day in the southern suburbs of Beirut, but also to the north in the country's Christian heartland for the first time since the conflict began.
And, as Katyusha rockets soar into northern Israel, protesters are chanting support for Hezbollah. Those chants coming from Istanbul, Tehran, and the capital of the country the U.S. is fighting to bring democracy to, Iraq.
Israeli warplanes have also targeted the Lebanese-Syrian border in the last 24 hours. Officials in Lebanon say an Israeli airstrike killed more than 20 people in the town of Qaa. That's in the northern Bekaa Valley. Lebanese security forces say the victims were farmworkers and the target, a storage lot for fruit and vegetables.
Brent Sadler now reports on the bombing of key bridges in northern Lebanon that has effectively cut Beirut off from Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (voice over): Emergency crews race to the rescue after Israeli warplanes unleash a renewed blitz on Lebanon's roads and bridges, retaliation for Hezbollah's deadly rocket fire at Israel the previous day. The main coastal highway connecting Beirut to Lebanon's northern border with Syria targeted. Lebanese motorists caught in the early morning attack in sight of the famed Casino du Liban. Vehicles entangled in the wreckage of concrete and steel.
This was the last high-speed link for people to enter and leave the country by road. Travel now severely restricted by slow-moving byways and detours. Some eyewitness report heavier than usual movements of trucks along this now battered route just hours before the attack.
"My brother let one of the trucks pass him," says Camille Fakiya (ph), "a split second before the road went up in a big explosion."
Under the flattened heap of a bridge that spanned this wide gully, a desperate search for more victims. A man is missing, and they think he's buried under the mountain of rubble.
Bystanders in this Christian heartland of Lebanon watch in resentful silence, reeling from shock. Camille Chamoun is a Maronite Catholic activist. "Now that Israel has broadened the air assault," he explains, "hitting more of their vital infrastructure, the politically divided Christians are now under pressure to unite and rally behind the defense of the country."
CAMILLE CHAMOUN, NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY: Public opinion is today against Israel 100 percent from this area, although before people were, you know, divided, saying maybe it will come to a happy end. But this is absolutely -- it has no explanation. In my opinion, it's very stupid.
SADLER (on camera): The punishing airstrikes may have achieved an Israeli military objective of strangling main supply routes into Lebanon from Syria for Hezbollah. But for the Lebanese as a whole, say government officials here, it's another devastating blow against a country that's been slowly dragged to its knees.
(voice over): Day by agonizing day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SADLER: Now, Lebanese government officials, Hala, say that 71 bridges, including those four, have now been destroyed in the three- week-old war. In addition to that, infrastructure damage now put at $2 billion and rising fast -- Hala.
GORANI: All right.
More information on what happened in Qaa. We saw the video there earlier. Lebanese officials saying farmworkers were killed by that Israeli airstrike.
What more do we know?
SADLER: Well, we know that Qaa is close to the Syrian border and that Syrian ambulances came across to take the dead and injured, many of them to Syrian medical facilities. Some were taken, we understand, according to eyewitnesses, on the Lebanese side to other medical facilities in Lebanon, but certainly heavy loss of life, at least 20 killed so far. That figure expected to rise.
According to eyewitnesses we've spoken to on the ground, they're saying that this group of seasonal agricultural workers were gathered eating, having lunch when they were hit by two airstrikes. They're saying missiles were deployed by the Israelis.
Other reports have said that they were in the process of putting supplies, fruit and vegetables, into a refrigerated warehouse. But so far, we're waiting for more news from that location about why the Israelis would have attacked those people at that time in that location -- Hala.
GORANI: A quick question on the locations they did strike, the bridges, the key roads. The Israeli military saying these are supply lines for Hezbollah arms.
SADLER: Well, that's been the continual claim by the Israelis, that Hezbollah is still able to bring in men and materiel through routes from Syria. Syria, of course, denies this.
Iran, Hezbollah's strongest ally, consistently denies supplying materiel for the war for the Hezbollah, but Israel has maintained it will continue to go after targets that Israel believes are essential to Hezbollah's own capability of continuing to fire missiles at Israel.
GORANI: All right. Our Beirut bureau chief, Brent Sadler, reporting.
Well, authorities got a chance to get a close-up look at one of the Hezbollah Katyushas that hit northern Israel. It actually lodged unexploded in a roadway. Here's what an Israeli police spokesman said about it in Kiryat Shmona.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICKEY ROSENFELD, ISRAELI POLICE SPOKESMAN: The latest rocket which landed, a rocket which we were not familiar with until today -- it's in fact a Syrian rocket, 302 rocket is the exact number of it, and the rocket itself had approximately 100 kilos of a warhead. Seven of those rockets have landed inside Israel until today. And obviously, as we know, the amount of damage and destruction that this type of rocket can cause if it lands inside a city, the destruction and devastation and the number of people that would be killed, will be huge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, Israeli soldiers are engaged in fierce fighting with Hezbollah militants in the southern part of Lebanon. This day, Friday, six Israeli soldiers died. No casualty figures for Hezbollah are available.
The latest casualties come as the IDF, the Israeli military, prepares to intensify its military operation.
John Roberts has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SR. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Israel's defense minister has ordered the Army to prepare for a major ground operation, a temporary land grab to take territory more than 10 miles up to Lebanon's Litani River. Tanks, troops and armor are streaming toward and across the border, a visible ramp up in just the past 24 hours.
At the same time, the Israeli big guns shoot shell after shell into southern Lebanon, softening up Hezbollah positions in advance of the ground attack.
(on camera): We're seeing a lot more artillery batteries these days. And we're seeing them much closer to the front as well, all along the Israel-Lebanon border. It is not just regular Army units like this one behind me. There are far more reserves that have been brought up to join the fight as well, firing those massive 155- millimeter howitzers in support of Israeli ground forces just on the other side.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (INAUDIBLE)
ROBERTS: The Israeli Army today released video of reserve units training up for battle. The call-up would dramatically increase the number of Israeli forces and boots on the ground, says General Benny Gantz.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can much more than double it and more.
ROBERTS: Double the size of the Army in just a few days?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's -- we have the resources. It is just a matter of needs and decisions.
ROBERTS (voice-over): Just a few yards from the border, an Israeli reconnaissance team scouts targets at a nearby Lebanese hilltop. There is a Hezbollah bunker up there, they say, and they are watching for targets on the ground to expose themselves to Israeli weapons.
Israel's strategy is to take out as many of the Hezbollah positions as quickly as possible. Sweep deep into southern Lebanon and control a huge buffer zone until international troops can arrive. But the fighting is vicious, and Israel has taken many casualties.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We are taking risks where we have to, where it is absolutely vital. And you have seen some of this in really rescue operations using helicopters, hair- raising operations. Our attitude is that where we can save lives, we will do everything in order to do this.
ROBERTS: Behind the main advance in towns they control Israeli forces are clearing out Hezbollah's infrastructure. In this Israeli Army video obtained exclusively by CNN a combat engineering battalion brings in mines, powerful explosives to demolish a Hezbollah outpost.
With the U.N. resolution to end the fighting now looking imminent, Israel is racing against the clock.
Harbored personnel carriers speed toward border crossings with new urgency. After three weeks of slow, hard fighting and criticism of the ground campaign here in Israel, a lightning strike drive, the military specialty, appears about to unfold.
John Roberts, CNN, along the Israel-Lebanon border.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, welcome here to Haifa, Israel.
I'm Fionnuala Sweeney.
We had some technical problems off the top of the program. That is one of the issues with live broadcasting. But we're here, and we want to bring you up to date with what's been happening here and across the Lebanese border.
Well, since the fighting began on July 12th, Israel has reduced large parts of Beirut's southern suburbs to rubble. It's long-stated mission is to severely weaken Hezbollah. But, despite the destruction, the Shia militants to launch strikes against Israel, and its leader has not been killed or captured.
Brian Todd has more on the hunt for Hassan Nasrallah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In his fifth media appearance since the fighting began, Hezbollah's leader shows his resolve.
NASRALLAH (through translator): I can assure you that the resistance will not be defeated and the resistance will not be broken.
TODD: CNN national security advisor John McLaughlin says the video gives few clues on Hassan Nasrallah's whereabouts.
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: One could say that he looks a little tired, his eyes are a little red, and that would be normal considering the stress he's probably under. But apart from that, this is a scene that could be filmed in the basement of a garage or almost anywhere.
TODD: Former Israeli and Western intelligence officials we spoke to believe Israel is targeting Nasrallah for assassination. Israeli officials are more guarded when asked publicly if they're looking for him. DANIEL AYALON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: We are certainly. And I think that the fate of Nasrallah should not be different than bin Laden.
TODD: But experts say this is different than the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Nasrallah, they say, is on his home turf, protected by a growing number of local supporters.
A former CIA officer who tracked Nasrallah says in his younger days, he was in charge of hiding Hezbollah's Western hostages. Reports that Nasrallah is hiding in Syrian or Iran cannot be confirmed. Most experts believe he's still in Lebanon, always on the move, possibly in civilian clothes with only a few bodyguards, and taking precautions.
PAUL CRUICKSHANK, NYU CENTER ON LAW & SECURITY: He's definitely making telephone calls, because Israelis -- the Israelis can sort of intercept those and home in on his position. And he's being very, very careful where he travels, and who knows where he's traveling, because the Israeli Defense Forces have aerial drones, unmanned aerial drones in the area.
TODD (on camera): If the Israelis kill Nasrallah, could that backfire on them with the creation of a martyr? One former intelligence officer believes Israel would risk that if it means taking a top operational commander like Hassan Nasrallah out of the mix.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Still to come on YOUR WORLD TODAY, they've got plenty of problems at home, but that didn't stop tens of thousands of Iraqis from marching in support of Lebanon and Hezbollah.
SWEENEY: And later, where does diplomacy stand, and what will the conflict's long-term effects be?
We'll be joined by U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns to answer those questions.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Welcome back to our viewers in America and around the world.
I'm Hala Gorani in Beirut.
SWEENEY: And I'm Fionnuala Sweeney, reporting from Haifa, Israel.
Now, marchers who support Hezbollah are demonstrating across the Middle East with both anger and enthusiasm. Tens of thousands hit the hot streets of Sadr City, Baghdad's crowded Shiite district. They waved the flags of Lebanon and Hezbollah, but burned Israeli flags. And Iranians angry over Israel's offensive tried to storm the British embassy in Tehran. They threw stones and firecrackers at the compound.
GORANI: Well, Fionnuala, almost everyone involved in discussions to try to hammer out a U.N. resolution agree on one thing: there will be a deal within days. But the devil is in the details.
There is a diplomatic dance going on now. The U.K. prime minister, Tony Blair, has postponed his holiday to try to work on an agreement, and France and the U.S. are trying to get closer in their positions.
John King has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Secretary of State Rice sounds confident of a deal to end the fighting within days.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're certainly getting close. We're working with the French.
KING: The French ambassador to the United Nations was more cautious, saying that talks were up one minute, down the next.
JEAN-MARC DE LA SABLIERE, FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: I hope that, today, it will be a positive day.
After weeks of criticism it was giving Israel a green light for military action, the White House is suddenly impatient, pushing for agreement by Friday, no later than Monday.
To move the talks along, several officials tell CNN the administration agreed to accept two Security Council resolutions, instead of the one it prefers, something Secretary Rice hinted at with CNN's Larry King.
RICE: We're moving, Larry, toward being able to do this in phases that will permit first an end or a stoppage of the hostilities, and based on the establishment of some very important principles for how we move forward.
KING: This is a working draft of the Security Council resolution. It calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities, release of the abducted Israeli soldiers, deployment of the Lebanese army to areas now controlled by Hezbollah, creating a buffer zone from the Litani River to Lebanon's southern border, and expanding the small U.N. peacekeeping force already in Lebanon in the short term.
Then, the draft envisions a second resolution later, authorized to deploy a bigger force to police a permanent cease-fire. Washington wanted one comprehensive cease-fire resolution, but France and others wanted more time to assess the risks of the mission.
DE LA SABLIERE: But I think that we have an understanding on what we -- I call the sequence.
KING: Still being negotiated, sources familiar with the talks tell CNN, is how quickly the council would act and how long it would take the larger force to move in. If no deal is reached by Friday, Secretary Rice will monitor weekend negotiations from the Bush ranch in Texas.
(on camera): And while the United States has no plans to take part in any Lebanon peacekeeping force, the administration says it will help train Lebanon's army, and provide it with desperately needed equipment and spare parts, after the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel stops.
John King, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Well, we'll be discussing all these issues and more with U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns after the break.
Stay with us on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY.
I'm Fionnuala Sweeney in Haifa, Israel.
The Israeli military is racing to secure its objectives ahead of a looming Security Council resolution. Diplomats at the United Nations are working feverishly to finalize that resolution, but even after the fighting stops, the repercussions will be felt in the region for some time.
Well, to discuss the ongoing diplomacy, as well as those long- term ramifications, we're joined by Nicholas Burns. Mr. Burns is the U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, and he joins us from Washington.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Can I ask you, first of all, what is the latest status on efforts to reach a cease-fire?
NICHOLAS BURNS, U.S. UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: We are working very, very hard, at the United Nations as we speak, Fionnuala, to try to achieve a resolution at the Security Council that would bring an end to the fighting. We expect and hope very much that could be done by early next week.
We're working very closely with France and with Britain and with other allies to see if there's a basis to do this. It's obviously very complicated, it's complicated by the violence on both sides.
You saw the 12 Israelis who were killed yesterday. You saw further civilian deaths in Lebanon today. The United States wants to put an end to this fighting. We want it to happen as soon as that is humanly possible, and we're putting a lot of effort into that at the United Nations right now.
SWEENEY: And, of course, the protagonists here, Israel and Hezbollah, very much at the forefront, one would think, of any attempts to reach a cease-fire.
I want to play a sound byte that -- from Larry King when Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state of the United States, was talking to him in an interview about her thoughts on Hezbollah.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICE: The United States wants terrorists to stop. And Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has a political wing. One of the unfortunate circumstances is that that political wing, which is a part of the Lebanese government, didn't somehow prevent this military or militant wing of Hezbollah from launching attacks even though Hezbollah sits as a part of the Lebanese government.
So, this just shows the problem when you have one foot in politics and one foot in terror. Eventually, Hezbollah has got to reconcile this. But what we want is we want terrorism to stop, and we want the Lebanese government to have full authority over the territory of Lebanon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWEENEY: Hearing Condoleezza Rice there, Nicholas Burns, talk about Hezbollah, the political organization, that is actually a departure of sorts from what we've been hearing from Washington in the past few weeks of this conflict.
Is there a possibility of bringing Hezbollah into the diplomatic fold in terms of trying to get a cease-fire and what you want to see as a sustainable solution?
BURNS: Oh, I don't think there's a possibility of doing that directly, and that's certainly not what Secretary Rice was suggesting. The reality is that Hezbollah is many things.
It's a political and social organization. It's also a terrorist organization. And we have to remember, Fionnuala, it was Hezbollah that started this conflict back on July 12th by crossing the international border illegally, by killing Israelis and abducting the soldiers.
So, our view is that we really do want to strengthen the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Siniora. And any kind of halt to the fighting is going to have to be worked out between two governments, between the government of Israel and the government of Lebanon. And obviously Hezbollah, in some ways, is a part of that government, but you can't...
SWEENEY: Yes, but let me jump in there if I may. BURNS: You have to...
SWEENEY: How can you bring a cease-fire agreement about without Hezbollah being ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: You have to understand that Hezbollah being part of the government obviously will rely on Prime Minister Siniora and his associates to work out the Lebanese end of any agreement. But you can't expect the state of Israel to have direct negotiations with am organization that has vowed to destroy the state of Israel. It doesn't make any sense.
SWEENEY: Is it possible to destroy Hezbollah as an entity given that it was born in the 1980s and emerged as an umbrella of various social groups? That it's more of a movement than anything else?
BURNS: Well, what's important is that all of us understand what's happening here. And that is, Iran created Hezbollah in 1982. Iran has funded Hezbollah, and Iran has provided the long-range rockets that are -- that are raining down on the northern part of Israel now.
And so, we have to see this conflict not just as one between Hezbollah and Israel as a border conflict. It is a wider conflict, because Iran is acting in a way that is fundamentally contrary to the hopes of all of us for stability and for peace in the Middle East. And so, Iran does bear some of this responsibility as well.
SWEENEY: Let me ask you about a comment that David Gergen, a former adviser to the U.S. president, said in an interview on CNN about an hour ago when he was asked about the U.S. being an honest broker in the region. He said this current administration was no longer an honest broker in the region, and that that ultimately went against -- against not justice Israel's interests, but also the United States.
How do you react to that?
BURNS: Well, all I can say to that is that the United States is probably the one country that has relations in the Arab world and relations with Israel that will allow us to play the role to bring this -- to try to bring this conflict to the end. That remains true. And the United States is fundamentally supportive of many, many countries in the Arab world, and we have the closest possible relationships with them.
So, I think it's a bit histrionic to exaggerate what's happening now and to say that somehow things have changed unalterably when, in fact, the United States has many, many vital interests in the Arab world. And we have very solid relationships with Arab countries, and we'll continue doing that.
And it's been our country that has led the way, led the effort to provide humanitarian assistance into Lebanon over the last two weeks. So, I think that -- I think that our bonafides in that respect are intact.
SWEENEY: Let me ask you, as we look at the pictures coming to us from around the region of protests against Washington, London, and also Israel, are you concerned that this conflict is bringing Sunni and Shia together in a new kind of alliance against the West, but particularly the United States and Israel?
BURNS: Oh, I don't think you'll see that the emergence of that kind of alliance. I think what you're seeing, obviously -- and it's understandable in human terms -- there are high emotions on both sides, certainly in Lebanon.
There's been so much destruction and so many deaths. And it's tragic to see that. And we do want to see if we can provide humanitarian aid to the people of Lebanon and to stop this fighting as soon as possible. That is what we are trying to do on an urgent basis over the next few days as we work at the United Nations. But you also have to know that emotions are running high in Israel, that Israel was attacked, that more than a million Israelis have been living in bomb shelters and cellars for three weeks now because of the Hezbollah attacks, and 12 Israelis were killed yesterday.
So the toll on both sides has been too high. And that's why the fighting should come to an end, and that's what our government is trying to do.
SWEENEY: Very briefly, Jordan's king has warned that what is taking place here, this prolonged battle in Lebanon is "weakening moderates all across the Middle East."
Is that something with which you concur?
BURNS: I think we've got to hope that as a result -- when this conflict does end -- and may it end as soon as possible -- that when it ends, that people will see that it was Iran and Syria that led Hezbollah to make this attack and who funneled the money and arms in there to spike the attack. And that the way forward is through moderation and reform and through countries accepting the state of Israel, and Israel working on to develop its relations with a moderate Arab regimes.
The way forward is not through terror in Damascus and the kind of radical destabilization of the region that both of those countries are now responsible for.
SWEENEY: All right. We have to leave it there.
Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state, thank you very much indeed for joining us from Washington.
BURNS: Thank you.
SWEENEY: We'll update the latest from the region in just a moment. No end in sight for Lebanon as Israeli rockets rain on.
GORANI: And broken bridges. We'll have a closer look at the damage being done to the country's infrastructure. You're with YOUR WORLD TODAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Welcome back to this special edition of YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Hala Gorani in Beirut.
SWEENEY: And I'm Fionnuala Sweeney, reporting from Haifa, Israel. Here's the latest in the Israeli/Lebanese conflict.
We have new video of the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, but we warn you, the images may be disturbing to some viewers. Lebanon says Israeli bombs killed more than 20 people in the village of Qaa in the northern Bekaa Valley. Lebanese security forces say the target was a parking lot where fruits and vegetables were being stored.
GORANI: Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes destroyed key bridges in northern Lebanon, further isolating Beirut from Syria. Israel says Hezbollah uses those roads to transport weapons, a claim Lebanon dense.
SWEENEY: Well, Israel's destructions of those key bridges in the north is making delivery of humanitarian aid nearly impossible. The U.N. saying airstrikes have literally cut off its umbilical cord for supplying aid to Tyre and elsewhere.
Karl Penhaul is in the port city of Tyre with more details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When there's blood on the streets, there's profits to be made.
Butrali Naif (ph) is one of those cashing in. He's hiked the wartime price of a pound of beef to $5.50, almost 40 percent higher than the pre-war cost.
Israeli warplanes bomb the highways around Tyre every day. Just keeping his store stocked has become a matter of life and death.
"I have to drive a long way to get to the farm to buy meat, and it's very dangerous," he says.
Demand for Naif's meat is high despite the price. Everything has gone up; gas and all kinds of food.
"The day the bombing started, prices rocketed," she tells me.
It's gas prices that have seen the biggest spike. Halid Nassah (ph) drives a taxi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before, 20 liter.
PENHAUL (on camera): Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-two thousand, Lebanon. PENHAUL: OK, so about $15.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now -- now...
PENHAUL: Now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In dollar, $100.
PENHAUL (voice-over): That means a single gallon costs anything from $10 to $20. But even at that price, Nassah says, he might have to drive up to 160 miles just to find fuel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe somebody tell me Tripoli. Now only Tripoli open. Who is going there?
PENHAUL (on camera): How many kilometers from here to Tripoli?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three hundred.
PENHAUL: And Beirut, no?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Beirut, no. Maybe...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only in the north!
PENHAUL (voice-over): Those sky-high gas costs are fueling price rises down at Tyre's vegetable market. Most of the produce is being brought in from miles away. The price of tomatoes has doubled to almost 40 cents a pound. Eggs, too, are up 100 percent. There's no work for now, so many are running out of money to pay for food, whatever the price.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the money we finish, it's a big problem. Because the bank here, all of banking, closed.
PENHAUL: But the hot topic among buyers is the fighting, not food prices. Even among housewives like these who only have enough money to buy vegetables, not meat.
"We will resist, resist, and resist until we have victory. God bless Hezbollah. Tell Israel we're here, ready and waiting," she says.
At current prices, shoppers may have to ration their food, but their wartime spirit seems strong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Karl Penhaul reporting there.
Well, death and suffering on the other side, also. Israeli police saying some 135 rockets landed in northern Israel Friday. And even as the Israeli military pushes ever deeper in Lebanon, Hezbollah shows no sign of weakening its barrage.
Paula Hancocks reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A father and his daughter buried together Friday, victims of a Hezbollah rocket in Akko on Thursday.
As the bodies are covered, two more Israelis are killed in rocket attacks. One woman died in a direct hit on her house in an Arab Jerus village in northern Galilee, according to police.
Another person killed when a rocket landed near his car on the outskirts of Israel's northernmost town of Kiryat Shemona.
Rockets once again were widespread across northern Israel, Hezbollah proving it's still more than capable of hurting Israel. But even many of those in the line of fire believe the war has to continue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We leave, and we still get attacked. So we -- once and for all, we have to make an end to the situation and to win this war, period.
HANCOCKS: One rocket that fell in Kiryat Shemona was Syrian- made, according to police, packed with 100 kilograms of explosives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The destruction that this type of rocket can cause if it lands inside a city -- the destruction and devastation and number of people that would be killed would be huge.
HANCOCKS: Israeli troops edge slowly deeper into Lebanon, but at a cost. Two more Israeli soldiers killed Friday, after Hezbollah fighters launched an anti-tank missile at the force operating in the village of Marqabi (ph).
Israel continues to fight on two fronts. Troops are still operating in Gaza. Three more Palestinians were killed there Friday by strikes Israel says were aimed at militants.
Tension over Israel's military operation spilled over in east Jerusalem after Friday prayers. Muslim worshipers threw bottles at Israeli police. At least four were arrested.
Residents in Israel's commercial capital, Tel Aviv, as yet untouched physically by the war on the northern border, are now preparing for the possibility they could be next on Hezbollah's target list.
Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened Thursday to launch rockets at Tel Aviv if Israel continued to target Beirut.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We used to get missile from Saddam a couple years ago, so (INAUDIBLE) afraid.
HANCOCKS: Israel's most popular city has been on heightened alert a couple of weeks. Patriot missile batteries will installed on the outskirts just in case Nasrallah means what he says. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Haifa, northern Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, Israel has hit hard over the last 24 hours. Many of our CNN crew were woken up between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. this morning by the owned of very large explosions. Some of these airstrikes hitting Lebanon's infrastructure and key bridges, as well. That's what we were hearing this morning Lebanon time.
Now, the country's transport minister says it will take at least three years to repair the damage. I spoke with Mohammed Safadi a bit earlier, and I started by asking him about the damage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOHAMMED SAFADI, LEBANESE TRANSPORTATION MIN.: Four bridges badly hurt. One was completely destroyed. Actually, the largest. And the other three have been very badly hit. Very badly damaged.
GORANI (on camera): So assuming the hostilities stopped now, how long would it take to repair Lebanon's infrastructure, the bridges and the roads?
SAFADI: It depends on the assessment we have to do, but most of the bridges up until now have got to be rebuilt completely. But some of them could be repaired. I mean, we've seen some of the damage. Some has hit the bases of these bridges and some has hit the surface of them. So we need to really make a full assessment before making a full cost-up.
GORANI: The main arteries, the main roads, are badly damaged, and it's difficult to drive on them. How do you devise a system where supply trucks and the aid can flow on the smaller roads? Is that even possible, in some cases?
SAFADI: We have very serious problems now. I mean, for example, from Sadr to Beirut, it's a 40-kilometer trip. Now it takes seven hours to do that trip because you have to take all very small roads up the mountains and all the way down.
So for any trucks or that it's a very difficult job to do. And, again, now, for the -- we have the northern borders from Aritha (ph) to Beirut, it was promised to be a safe corridor for humanitarian aid.
Unfortunately, with the bombardment this morning, it seems there is a complete change, you know, in that, and we don't have any safe corridors now. Everything is liable to be bombarded. So, the roads now from the -- the only road that was available to bring humanitarian aid by land has been now destroyed.
GORANI: In the last 24 hours, we've seen airstrikes on the southern parts of Beirut and the bridges as we discussed. Has your level of pessimism, or optimism as the case may be, varied?
SAFADI: I'm more pessimistic now. I'm more pessimistic. I see Israel as going beyond anything. They're destroying everything that they could, that they can destroy.
GORANI: And do you -- is your sense that this is -- what is the military strategy here, as the transport minister, seeing these roads cut off, seeing bridges bombed, how do you see it in the global picture of how Lebanon's transport system is now damaged?
SAFADI: I mean, what I see, we're being cut into small pieces, and that's what's happening. So it's like a jigsaw puzzle now, which we have to put back together. They have cut Lebanon systematically everywhere. So now each area is completely isolated fro isolate e isolated, except by minor roads or very narrow roads. And then -- but, I mean, for us to link Lebanon again is going to be time- consuming job, definitely a time-consuming job.
GORANI: And a costly one. Are you able to put a dollar number on the damage that was done?
SAFADI: It won't be less than $2 billion up to now, and even now, with the four bridges, this might be an additional sum on that figure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, the view from one member of the Lebanese government, Mohammed Safadi, the transport minister here in Lebanon.
Coming up next, Shiite solidarity? Ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY thousands of Iraqis turn out to support their fellow Muslims in Lebanon. Their message, death to Israel.
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GORANI: Hello, welcome back to this special edition of YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Hala Gorani in Beirut.
SWEENEY: Indeed, I seem to have lost my IFB connection with Atlanta, but not to worry, because in Baghdad, a powerful show of support for Hezbollah, as tens of thousands of civilians have converged chanting "death to Israel." The rally in response to a call by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Harris Whitbeck has been following events in the Iraqi capital.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chanting that Hezbollah leader Nasrallah is waging his war against Israel in the name of religion, Shia protesters from all over Iraq converged on Sadr City, the bastion of Shia fundamentalism in the Iraqi capital. They arrived in buses and private cars, and they numbered in the tens of thousands, accompanied by armed militiamen waving the yellow flag of Hezbollah.
As Israeli and American flags were burned and effigies of George Bush and Tony Blair were waved in the air, an imam prayed for Hezbollah fighters. "The victory will be for the Islamic resistance in Lebanon. Imam Ali, peace be upon him, will support him like he did before with the Mahdi Army in Najaf. That was a reference to the bloody fight between Shia militias and U.S. forces two years ago that led to the rise in prominence for radical Shia clergy Muqtada al-Sadr. It was also a call to arms for Hezbollah supporters elsewhere in Iraq.
This protester, shrouded in white, signifying his willingness to die for his cause, said he was ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I will fight with Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah, and we will support him until we free Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, God willing.
WHITBECK: Others demanded that Hezbollah strike Tel Aviv next.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITBECK: The protest was described by some as the biggest ever in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah. It was also a show of force of Shia supporters in Iraq, who say Hezbollah's fight is their own -- Hala.
GORANI: All right, Harris Whitbeck live in Baghdad. (INAUDIBLE), Harris.
Let's talk more about this the heavy sectarian violence. We will have an interview with the author of a book called "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq," his perspective, senior Pentagon correspondent for "The Washington Post."
But for now, we're going to take a short break, and we'll be right back. Don't go away.
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GORANI: Well, heavy sectarian violence has plagued Iraq for months. Just yesterday, U.S. military officials were grilled in Washington, D.C., some warning that the situation could quickly deteriorate into civil war. Let's get more perspective on this.
I'm joined now from our Los Angeles Bureau by Tom Ricks. He's senior Pentagon correspondent at the "Washington Post," and the author of "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq." Tom Ricks, thanks for being with us. "Fiasco" -- why such a strong word?
TOM RICKS, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, I was trying to put up a blinking red sign to say things are not going well in Iraq. This is a very troubled situation, and unless we really start operating more intelligently and better, that we're not going to prevail in Iraq and the United States needs to do better. And the way you start to do better is to recognize errors you've made and adjust.
GORANI: And what are those errors and what adjustments need to be made, in your opinion?
RICKS: Well, I think the biggest errors have been systemic, not just the errors of the Bush administration which were abundant, but also errors made by the U.S. military itself. I think it bungled the occupation. And this isn't just my opinion. This is based upon a review of 37,000 pages of documents, and interviews with over 100 senior officers.
One battalion commander sent me a note thanking me for writing this book, and saying, finally, somebody is saying publicly what he and his comrades have been saying privately for a couple of years.
GORANI: Let's listen to what the top commander on the ground, John Abizaid, told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday about how likely it was that Iraq would slip into full-blown civil war, and then I'll have you react. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENERAL JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it in Baghdad, in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Now, Tom Ricks, what does it mean when the top U.S. commander says something like that? What should we read between the lines?
RICKS: I think it's consistent with previous statements in which they recognize reality, but generally, six months or a year too late. I think most people on the ground in Iraq have known for some time that it's in a low-level civil war.
And, in some ways, what the U.S. military is trying to do there is simply keep a lid on it to become -- to stop it from becoming, as you say, a full-blown civil war, partly because a full-blown civil war would be extremely violent, probably kill tens of thousands of people, and might very well spill over the borders of Iraq and become a regional war.
GORANI: Now, in your book, "Fiasco," you say that in Iraq at the beginning, in 2003, there was a tiny group of U.S. soldiers who knew how to manage the occupation and could have made this a successful experiment for America. What was their approach and why weren't they listened to?
RICKS: Again and again, there were Special Forces officers and other officers who understood the fundamentals of counterinsurgency. This is not rocket science. This stuff is fairly well-understood. Use minimal amounts of force, not overwhelming force. Treat your prisoners well. And most importantly, regard the people not as the playing field in the war, but as the prize.
Take care of the Iraqis. This isn't just warm and fuzzy hearts and mind stuff, it's provide security to Iraqis and treat Iraqi lives as even more important than the lives of your own soldiers.
GORANI: Now, in your experience of studying and reporting on conflict throughout the Middle East and other parts of the world, what do you make now of what's happening between Israel and Hezbollah?
RICKS: Well, I think it's extremely worrisome, especially for the United States in Iraq. You look at those big demonstrations today and they remind me, you know, in a chilling way of the spring of 2004 in Iraq when the Shiite militias rose up in Najaf and elsewhere in the south and suddenly, U.S. forces in Iraq faced a two-front war and also faced having their supply lines down to Kuwait cut.
To have armed Shiite militias out in the streets, condemning the Americans and saying they support Hezbollah, puts the United States in Iraq in a very worrisome position.
GORANI: All right, Tom Ricks of the "Washington Post," and author of "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq," thanks so much for being with us here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
That does it for me for now. I'm Hala Gorani in Beirut.
SWEENEY: And I'm Fionnuala Sweeney reporting from Haifa, Israel. Thank you for watching. Stay with CNN.
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