Israel warplanes strike Lebanon, kill five

One policeman and two civilians died when Israeli attacks ripped along the Bekaa, an AFP photographer said.

Two other people, a man and a woman, died when the southern village of Kafra was bombarded, police said.

Warplanes lobbed more than 400 missiles and bombs overnight on Khiam in the south, a security official told the state news agency ANI. Four UN monitors were killed when their observation post in the border town was destroyed by Israeli bombardment on Tuesday.

In air raids to the east of Sidon, the regional capital of the south, one person was seriously wounded in the village of Zefta, police said. A home was destroyed in Bazalieh to the north of Baalbek in the Bekaa.

A Lebanese military source said Israel also carried out a raid early Thursday near an army base in the Amchit region, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Beirut, without causing any casualties.

Israeli rockets caused a fire at a radio communications centre, the source said.

On Wednesday, as the war between the Jewish state and the Shiite militants of Hezbollah entered its third week, three people were killed as Israel pounded south Lebanon, including two guerrillas, and 12 people wounded.

Since the start of the Israeli offensive on July 12, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon. Most have been civilians; 29 were Lebanese troops or police.

On Wednesday Israel announced that nine soldiers had been killed in fighting around the key Hezbollah military stronghold of Bint Jbeil and a nearby village, bringing to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the worst cross-border fighting in a quarter century.

It was the highest toll since Israel launched its deadly offensive against Lebanon on July 12 to try to recover two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in border attacks that also killed eight servicemen.

Eight soldiers were killed as they battled Hezbollah militants to move deeper inside the Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil as the Jewish state pressed on with its ground advance in southern Lebanon.

A ninth was killed in the nearby village of Marun al-Ras, which Israel said it captured a the weekend.

Two Shiite militants were also reported killed.

The UN peacekeeping force said there were still a number of civilians caught in the crossfire and stranded in three towns while hundreds of residents tried to flee their homes en masse after being given an Israeli ultimatum.

Israel has repeatedly said it believes the Shiite militant group has longer-range rockets capable of reaching beyond its third city, as far as the commercial capital Tel Aviv, or even the southern city of Beersheva.

Several rockets landed Wednesday on Haifa, wounding at least six people.

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