Sunday, 30 July 2006, 08.57 GMT 09.57 UK

Dozens killed in Lebanon air raid


More than 40 people, including many children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike on the southern Lebanese town of Qana.

Initial reports say families had been sheltering in the basement of a site which was crushed after a direct hit.

Israel said Hezbollah was responsible for using the town to launch rockets.

The US secretary of state has cancelled a visit to Beirut as the Lebanese prime minister says he will only discuss a full and immediate ceasefire.

Fouad Siniora said there was "no room on this sad morning" for talks until Israel had halted its attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier that Israel was not in a hurry to agree to a ceasefire until it achieved its goals in the area.
May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting



Before the Qana attack, the UN said some 600 people - about a third of them children - had been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon since their operations began 19 days ago.

A total of 51 Israelis, including at least 18 civilians, have been killed in the conflict, sparked by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid earlier in July.

'Stop'
Witnesses said the early-morning strike flattened several sites on top of sleeping residents


One survivor said the "bombing was so intense that no-one could move".

Reliable casualty figures are not yet clear, but reports said more than 40 had been killed, while sources in the Lebanese Red Cross said as many as 50 or 60 had lost their lives.

Elderly, women and children were among those killed in the raid, which wrought destruction over a wide area.


sempre e solo su

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5228224.stm