Thursday, July 13, 2006; Posted: 4:18 a.m. EDT (08:18 GMT)
A crater is visible in one of the Beirut International Airport runways after Thursday's attack.
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BEIRUT (CNN) -- Israeli aircraft bombed Beirut International Airport on Thursday before blocking naval traffic in Lebanese waters as it expanded its military campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas who kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
IDF said the aim of the naval blockade, announced at midday, was to "block the transfer of terrorists and weaponry."
"We are taking strong measures so that it will be clear to the Lebanese people and government ... that we mean business," said Israeli Security Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog.
Earlier, Israeli fighter jets bombed all three runways at Beirut's main airport -- located in the city's southern suburbs -- rendering them unusable, according to the IDF and a Lebanese aviation official. As a result, the airport was closed and flights were diverted to nearby Cyprus, the official said.
IDF said it targeted the airport because it serves as a central hub for the transfer for weapons and supplies to Hezbollah. (Watch first reports on runway bombings -- 6:00)
Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat called the airport strikes a "general act of war," saying they had nothing to do with Hezbollah, but was instead an attack against the country's "economic interests," especially its tourism industry.
The airport, which is located in Beirut's southern suburbs, was renamed Rafic Hariri International Airport last year after the former prime minister who was assassinated in the Lebanese capital.
Another airstrike, on al-Manar television station, was carried out because the station is used by Hezbollah to incite and recruit activists, according to IDF.
Despite the strike, al-Manar continued to broadcast, a Lebanese security source said.
The Israeli airstrikes came hours after Israel's Cabinet authorized a "severe and harsh" response to the abduction of the two soldiers.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the attack and abductions were an "act of war" and blamed the Lebanese government, which he said would be held responsible for the soldiers' safe release.
Israeli artillery and airstrikes have been pounding Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after a cross-border raid Wednesday took the two captives. In all, eight Israeli soldiers were killed -- three in the initial raid and five others in the fighting that immediately followed, according to the IDF.
The cross-border fighting continued Thursday, with numerous Katyusha rocket strikes in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, according to CNN's John Vause. He said buildings near the hotel he was staying in have been damaged.
Thursday's casualties throughout northern Israel totaled 29, including one woman killed and 15 injured in the Nahariya rocket attack, according to the IDF.
The Lebanese security source said 26 to 27 people had been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, including a number of civilians.
The Israeli military said one of its airstrikes on Thursday hit a Hezbollah operational command center in southern Lebanon.
IDF said its strikes have been targeting locations within or adjacent to heavily populated areas that Hezbollah uses for storing rockets and weapons. An IDF spokesman said Hezbollah is responsible for placing the storage sites in areas that would put civilians at risk.
Hezbollah, an Islamic militia backed by Syria and Iran, demanded "direct negotiations" for a prisoner exchange to resolve the crisis. Israel has rejected that call, arguing it would lead to more attacks.
"We expect them to be returned to us alive and safely, immediately without any precondition -- no negotiation," Israeli government spokesman Gideon Meir told CNN.
The identities of the kidnapped soldiers had not been released as of Thursday morning.
Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, but the Islamic militia is a significant player in Lebanon's fractious politics. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, told reporters that abducting the soldiers was "our natural, only and logical right" to win freedom for Hezbollah prisoners held by Israel.
Nasrallah said the two soldiers had been taken to a place "far, far away" and that an Israeli military campaign would not win their release.
The new fighting on Israel's northern border comes amid a two-week-old Israeli campaign in Gaza in search of Israeli army Cpl. Gilad Shalit, a soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants there (Watch how kidnapping has brought region to brink of war -- 3:15).
Originally Posted by CAUSASIAN
You really do need to know the facts before you speak.
