Mideast war rages with no end in sight

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060802/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel_703

BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon - Hezbollah fired its biggest and deepest volley of rockets into Israel on Wednesday as Israel pursued the guerrillas with 8,000 soldiers on the ground and heavy bombing. With fighting in its fourth week and diplomatic efforts stalled, the region braced for a bitter and long war.

In eastern Lebanon, villagers wept as heavy machinery carried off the bodies of those killed in an overnight raid against a Hezbollah stronghold. Across northern Israel, forests and fields lay scorched from rocket fire that killed a Massachusetts native fleeing on his bicycle after a warning siren went off.

Hopes for a cease-fire dimmed despite a plea from Pope Benedict XVI for a quick solution. U.N. diplomats debated a draft resolution that would lay down the conditions for an international force to go in; they claimed they were making progress but acknowledged no immediate deal was in sight.

The prospect of a longer war has raised tensions across the Mideast, where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is now sharp. Arab leaders have warned repeatedly in recent days that the fighting has hampered, or killed outright, any hope for a long-term Israeli peace deal.



A Christian Jordanian girl holds a candle during a vigil, held in solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people during the three-week-old war between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah, in the town of Fehais on the outskirts of Amman August 2, 2006. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji (JORDAN)