Troops push ahead in thousands

METULLA - Six Israeli Army brigades - up to 10,000 troops - were in southern Lebanon last night as part of a two-pronged thrust that marked a major escalation in the war.

In the south, troops moved at least 6km inside Lebanon, as thousands more soldiers gathered on the Israeli side of the border.

"We have so far now about six efforts running inside Lebanon ... brigade-size or even bigger than brigade-size efforts in each one of them," Israeli Brigadier General Shuki Shahur said. An Israeli brigade usually has at least 1000 soldiers.

The disclosure of the level of forces in southern Lebanon came during heavy fighting in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and 25 wounded around the village of Aita al-Shaab in the central border area.

Israel also yesterday launched the deepest ground attack on Lebanon since fighting started three weeks ago.

Israeli commandos raided a Hizbollah-run hospital and captured guerrillas during pitched battles deep in the northeastern Bekaa Valley.

In the attack on Baalbek, about 100km north of Israel, commandos ferried in by helicopters fought Hizbollah guerrillas inside and around the hospital under cover of heavy airstrikes, witnesses said. At least 19 civilians were killed in air strikes in the area that accompanied the raid, Lebanese authorities said.

After the commandos withdrew, warplanes destroyed the three-storey hospital, which had been evacuated of wounded Hizbollah and civilian patients before the Israeli raid.

Israeli aircraft also wrecked at least three bridges in the northern region and fired on a Lebanese Army base - in Sarba, in south Lebanon - killing three soldiers.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Army was "winning the battle" in its 21-day offensive against Hizbollah.

Olmert's assertion, which appeared to be preparing Israelis for a possible end to the conflict, came as three divisions of reservists neared the end of their training in preparation for reinforcing armoured infantry and engineering units seeking to push Hizbollah back from the border.

Israel's Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, said Israel would resume full air strikes against Hizbollah from late last night.

He said that Hizbollah was at "breaking point" and added that an expanded ground offensive would bring victory. "With a little patience and a lot of determination ... we shall win."

But even though an escalation of operations was expected over the next two days, the tone of Olmert's speech in Tel Aviv was seen by some commentators as indicating that he accepted the timetable for such an expanded operation was now finite.

"This threat will not be what it was. Never will they be able to threaten this people they fired missiles at. This people will defeat them.

"We are at the beginning of a political process that in the end will bring a ceasefire under entirely different conditions than before."

Olmert said 400 Hizbollah fighters had been killed in the fighting, but Brigadier General Shuki Sachar told reporters in Safed that "between 200 and 300" guerrillas had been killed.

He said one of the aims of the operation was to "kill as many Hizbollah terrorist as possible." Olmert said that success "cannot be measured by the number or range of the rockets fired at us." He said he had never promised that the offensive would destroy all Hizbollah's missiles, but said the threat from the guerrillas had been reduced.

Around a dozen rockets fired by Hizbollah guerrillas fell on towns across northern Israel last night. On some days, more than 100 rockets have landed, although in the past two days fewer than a dozen struck Israel.

Yesterday, the troops entered southern Lebanon through four different points along the border and moved at least 6km inside.

Israeli officials said their soldiers were to go as far as the Litani River, as far as 30km into Lebanon, and hold the ground until an international peacekeeping force comes ashore.

The Army later said it had distributed leaflets northeast of the river at villages where Hizbollah was active.

The leaflets told people to leave, suggesting that the new offensive could take Israeli soldiers even deeper into Lebanon.

Polls in Israel show wall-to-wall support for Israel's fight against Hizbollah.

But in the battered village of Khiam near the Israeli border, Hizbollah fighters told journalists morale was high and claimed that Israel would lose.

Few buildings remained standing in the village, with many flattened by Israeli artillery pounding from across the border 4km to the south.

One of three guerrilla fighters gave his name as Hossam Abu Mohammed. He said the mission was "very simple. It is forbidden for Israel to enter Lebanese territory".

"The morale of the mujahideen is very high," he said.

Hizbollah fighters have rarely been seen, let alone interviewed since the fighting began on July 12.

In diplomatic activity to end the crisis, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged major powers to patch up differences and rescheduled a meeting of potential contributors for an international force for tomorrow. It was postponed from earlier in the week.

European Union foreign ministers called for an immediate end to hostilities, watering down demands for an immediate ceasefire at the insistence of Britain and other close US allies.

A joint statement adopted at a rare August crisis meeting of the 25-nation bloc said: "The council calls for an immediate end to hostilities to be followed by a sustainable ceasefire."

France, tipped to lead the new force, said it must be bigger than the 10,000 troops suggested by Annan, be sufficiently well armed and have precise guidelines on opening fire.

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS, AGENCIES