Israel/Lebanon War Updates

Updated throughout the day.

(AP Photo / Hadi Mizban)

- Freedom to protest in Iraq is on the march:

BAGHDAD, Iraq Aug 4, 2006 (AP)— Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.
[...]
The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since the Israeli army launched an offensive July 12 after a guerrilla raid on northern Israel.

See? That's what happens when you bring democracy to Iraq, Bush. The darn ingrates turn against you!

- Meanwhile, even though the Associated Press had earlier reported that Christian villages in Lebanon had been spared, Israel has now sent missiles into Lebanon's Christian areas, further complicating the entire situation.

- Israel is also bombing perilously close to the Syrian border. It's only a matter of time before the Syrian army may be forced to become directly involved.

One Israeli air strike hit a farm near Qaa, close to the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley where workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, were loading plums and peaches on to trucks, local officials said. They said 33 people were killed and 20 wounded.

An Israeli army spokesman said air strikes in the area had targeted two buildings that military intelligence had showed were used by Hizbollah to store weapons.

But television footage showed bodies of what appeared to be farm workers lined up near the ruins of a small structure in fruit groves. Strewn nearby were fruit baskets.

It was one of the deadliest air strikes in 24 days of war.

- Hezbollah struck back with missiles that reached further into Israel than ever before near the city of Hadera and the IDF keeps bombing more bridges, disrupting the flow of aid into Lebanon.

- On CNN Friday morning, Israel's ambassador to the UN called UNIFIL 'totally incompetent, practically impotent in preventing attacks and doing anything'. Which part of the fact that they were observers doesn't Gillerman get?

- Tony Blair proclaims that he is the Palestinians' new best friend. With friends like him...

Caution: Delusions of grandeur appear to be contagious. Stay away from Bush, Condi, Cheney, Rummy, Blair, Olmert and Stephen Harper or you too may be afflicted with this incurable disorder.

more to come...