14 Die As Bombardment Goes on Across Lebanon

Israeli warplanes and artillery continued to bombard Lebanon yesterday, from the southern border to the far north of the country, killing at least 14 people. Hizbullah, meanwhile, said it fired 150 rockets into Israel, although Israeli rescue officials put the total at about 80.

The latest attacks came as the New York Times reported that Israel has asked the US to hasten delivery of controversial anti-personnel rockets armed with cluster bomblets. Sourcing its report to two American officials, the newspaper said the request for M-26 artillery rockets, which are fired in barrages and explode over a broad area, is likely to be approved shortly.

The fiercest fighting yesterday was around Marjayoun, a mainly Christian town five miles inside Lebanon. Israeli forces, whose tanks rolled in on Thursday, were reportedly attacking Hizbullah fighters in neighbouring Shia villages.

Hundreds of civilian vehicles joined a convoy escorted by UN peacekeepers leaving Marjayoun. The exodus - which was slowed by Israeli shelling nearby - included about 350 Lebanese soldiers and police who were in the town when Israeli forces moved in.

In the capital, Beirut, Israeli fighter-bombers again pounded the southern suburbs around dawn. Leaflets dropped over the city accused the Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah of "cheating" the Lebanese over casualties among his militiamen and named about 90 fighters who Israel says have been killed.

At least 12 people died in an Israeli attack on a bridge at the Abboudiyeh crossing on Lebanon's northern border with Syria, security officials said. Two other Lebanese civilians were killed in attacks in other parts of the country.

Hizbullah said it had killed or wounded 15 Israeli soldiers near the southern border village of Aita al-Shaab and killed four others in another border village, Qantara.

The Shia organisation's TV station, al-Manar, said guerrillas had hit an Israeli gunboat off Tyre, killing or wounding 12 sailors, but Israel denied the report.

Relief officials expressed concern about conditions in swelling refugee settlements near Tyre. A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ronald Huguenin, said Israel refused to let a Greek ship carrying humanitarian aid and food to dock in either Tyre or Sidon. On Thursday, the top UN humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said it was a "disgrace" that Israel and Hizbullah hindered aid convoys to civilians.

Israel plans to repatriate two Lebanese men captured during fighting with Hizbullah after it was determined that they were not members of the guerrilla group, an Israeli security source told Reuters yesterday. The handover was expected to take place later in the day at Rosh Hanikra, on Israel's border with Lebanon.