Israeli planes hit Christian areas around Beirut [View All]

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by Stuart Williams
1 hour, 45 minutes ago

BEIRUT (AFP) - Israeli warplanes pounded Christian areas north of Beirut as well as Shiite Muslim areas to the south of the city, despite a threat by Hezbollah to rocket Tel Aviv in retaliation.

While the UN Security Council struggled to set terms for a ceasefire, three Israeli soldiers were reported killed in south Lebanon, a day after the Israeli army admitted the Jewish state had suffered its "hardest day" in the three-week-old conflict, with four military and eight civilian dead Friday.

Israeli jets wrecked four bridges on the coastal highway leading north from Beirut, effectively cutting the last practicable road between the Lebanese capital and the Syrian border.

The Lebanese Red Cross said five civilians were killed and 15 were wounded but other bodies might be trapped beneath rubble which cascaded down the mountainside below the highway.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060804/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflict_060804095609