Israel arrests senior Hamas lawmaker

Israeli troops on Sunday detained a senior Hamas legislator, pushing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant group, Palestinian officials and relatives of the man said.

Troops surrounded the home of Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the parliament, in broad daylight and detained him, said his sister, Yaqeen.

Al-Ramahi had evaded arrest since Israel began its crackdown on Hamas following the June 25 abduction of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked militants in the Gaza Strip.

The army had no immediate comment.

Al-Ramahi, a physician by training, is the fourth-ranking member of the parliament, responsible for many administrative and procedural matters. With his arrest, Israel now has almost all of Hamas’ West Bank leadership in custody.

Early Saturday, troops arrested Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer at a home where he had been hiding in Ramallah. He was the most senior Hamas official to be detained yet. Israel is now holding five Cabinet ministers and more than two dozen lawmakers. Four other Cabinet ministers have been released.

Mushir Masri, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza, called the arrest “cheap Israeli extortion that runs against all international laws.” He told The Associated Press that “we hold Israel responsible for all the serious consequences if it insists on kidnapping lawmakers and ministers.”

Despite Israel’s crackdown on Hamas political leaders, and a large offensive in the Gaza Strip, the captured Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, has still not been released. The militants holding him have demanded a wide-scale release of Palestinian prisoners — a demand Israel has rejected.

Israel arrests senior Hamas lawmaker

Israeli troops on Sunday detained a senior Hamas legislator, pushing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant group, Palestinian officials and relatives of the man said.

Troops surrounded the home of Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the parliament, in broad daylight and detained him, said his sister, Yaqeen.

Al-Ramahi had evaded arrest since Israel began its crackdown on Hamas following the June 25 abduction of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked militants in the Gaza Strip.

The army had no immediate comment.

Al-Ramahi, a physician by training, is the fourth-ranking member of the parliament, responsible for many administrative and procedural matters. With his arrest, Israel now has almost all of Hamas’ West Bank leadership in custody.

Early Saturday, troops arrested Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer at a home where he had been hiding in Ramallah. He was the most senior Hamas official to be detained yet. Israel is now holding five Cabinet ministers and more than two dozen lawmakers. Four other Cabinet ministers have been released.

Mushir Masri, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza, called the arrest “cheap Israeli extortion that runs against all international laws.” He told The Associated Press that “we hold Israel responsible for all the serious consequences if it insists on kidnapping lawmakers and ministers.”

Despite Israel’s crackdown on Hamas political leaders, and a large offensive in the Gaza Strip, the captured Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, has still not been released. The militants holding him have demanded a wide-scale release of Palestinian prisoners — a demand Israel has rejected.

Iran tests short-range missile

ran test-fired a surface-to-surface short-range missile, while a military training plane crashed outside the capital Tehran after catching fire, state-run television reported Sunday.

The missile testing came a day after Iran launched a series of large-scale military maneuvers geared at introducing the country’s new defensive doctrine.

“Saegheh, the missile, has a range of between 80 to 250 kilometers,” state-run television said. It said the missile was tested in the Kashan desert, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of the capital of Tehran.

Saegheh means lightning in Farsi.

Authorities said the military plane that crashed on Sunday after catching fire was not taking part in the maneuvers. It did not elaborate.

The broadcast said the plane was making an emergency landing on a highway in northeast Tehran but it crashed after a wing of the plane hit a water reservoir and burst into flames.

The television said the only pilot in the plane parachuted safely.

Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and to test equipment such as missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.

But the new tests, in the wake of the Lebanon-Hezbollah fighting, seemed certain to create new tensions with the West.

State-run television said the missile was built based on domestic know-how, although outside experts say much of the country’s missile technology originated from other countries.

State-run TV showed video of 10 missiles being launched from mobile launching pads.

Iran said its new military exercises launched Saturday are being held in 14 of the country’s 30 provinces and could last as long as five weeks, the government has said.

The Islamic Republic, which views the United States as an arch foe, is concerned about the U.S. military presence in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.

It also has expressed worry about Israeli threats to destroy its nuclear facilities, which the West contends could be used to make a bomb but which Iran insists are for civilian uses only.

Iran is already equipped with the Shahab-3 missile, which means “shooting star” in Farsi; it is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. An upgraded version of the ballistic missile has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers and can reach Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Last year, former Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said Tehran had successfully tested a solid fuel motor for the Shahab-3, a technological breakthrough for the country’s military.

Iran’s military test-fired a series of missiles during large-scale war games in the Persian Gulf in March and April, including a missile it claimed was not detectable by radar that can use multiple warheads to hit several targets simultaneously.

After decades of relying on foreign weapons purchases, Iran’s military has been working to boost its domestic production of armaments.

Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane, the government has said. It announced in early 2005 that it had begun production of torpedoes.

Saddam facing poison gas charges

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein will go on trial Monday accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988.

The series of deadly assaults in the Kurdish region included the former regime’s alleged use of poison gas.

The trial comes as sectarian violence plagues the country more than three years after Hussein was toppled, with gunmen targeting Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad on Sunday.

Across the world, the court of public opinion watching the trial will be scrutinizing the much-criticized Iraqi High Tribunal.

Iraq’s Kurds, who are seeking justice for the well-documented attacks, welcome the trial. But one major human rights watchdog group that has helped educate the world about the Anfal campaign worries that the tribunal won’t do its victims justice.

“Anfal” — which means “spoils” in Arabic — is a term from the eighth chapter, or sura, of the Quran, the sacred Muslim book.

It is believed that about 100,000 Kurds were killed and 3,000 villages destroyed in the operation. Those who survived were illegally detained and later executed.

Human Rights Watch — which has tracked, documented and decried the Anfal campaign for years — warns that the Iraqi tribunal is “incapable” of handling the proceeding fairly, judging from its performance during the ongoing Dujail trial.

On the other hand, U.S. officials say the tribunal officials learned a lot from their experiences during the Dujail proceeding and have improved their performance.

The Dujail trial, which began last October, focused on a government crackdown in 1982 against Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination attempt against Hussein there.

The crackdown resulted in the deaths of 148 Shiite males, the mistreatment of many residents and the destruction of property.

The trial adjourned last month, and resumes in mid-October, when verdicts are expected for Hussein and seven co-defendants, including Hussein’s half-brother Barzan Hassan.

The Dujail proceeding was criticized by many observers for its delays, procedural problems and inadequate security for attorneys. Critics said Hussein and Hassan turned the trial into a circus with frequent interruptions and constant harangues. They were two of eight suspects in the Dujail trial.

The legal machinery for the Anfal case got rolling as the Dujail trial was ending. In April, investigative judge Raed Jouhi announced that investigators had finished gathering witnesses and evidence and were ready to go to trial.

Internal armed conflict

Hussein and six co-defendants — including Ali Hassan al-Majeed, a former Iraqi general known as “Chemical Ali” — are on trial in the Anfal case.

All face charges of war crimes related to an internal armed conflict and crimes against humanity. Hussein and al-Majeed have been charged with genocide.

The other defendants in the Anfal case are Sultan Hashem Ahmed, the military commander of the campaign; Saber Abdel Aziz, the director of military intelligence during the campaign; Hussein Rashid, the deputy of operations for Iraqi forces at the time; Taher Ani, a former governor of Mosul; and Farhan Jubouri, former head of military intelligence in northern Iraq.

When the proceeding kicks off, the lead prosecutor is expected to read the charges against the accused, and the defendants may identify themselves during the proceeding.

Five native Iraqi judges of Shiite and Kurdish origin will preside over the tribunal, created in 2003 to prosecute members of the former Iraqi regime who are alleged to have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the violation of certain Iraqi laws.

A U.S. official close to the proceeding said the chief judge is Abdullah al-Amri.

He said the trial is expected to be completed in months, by mid-December, with the court preparing to work three to four days a week 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with time off every so often. There will be a one-week break during the week of October 16, when the Dujail verdict is to be announced.

There are 120 to 140 witnesses expected for the prosecution, and the defense must provide its list of witnesses by the end of October, the official said.

On Monday, all defendants will be in the courtroom, the official said, and Hussein will have the same defense team he had in the Dujail trial. Hussein — who received medical care after a hunger strike — is eating and exercising and is thought to be in good health, the U.S. official said.

There will be opening statements from the prosecution and defense and opening pleas from each defendant, and if time permits, there will be testimony, the official said.

‘Justice must be done’

The Kurdish regional government — which represents the people of Duhuk, Sulaimaniya and Irbil provinces in the north — said it “welcomes the trial of Saddam Hussein at the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Justice must be done, and must be seen to be done.”

Estimates of the number of deaths in the Anfal operation range from 50,000 to nearly 200,000, and Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government said that “for decades to come, this horrific period of their history will remain in the collective memory of the people of Kurdistan.”

“These policies and crimes were conceived and conducted by Saddam Hussein and his regime,” the Kurdish government said in a statement on Thursday.

The regional government says it “has sought and will continue to seek justice for the victims through legal, democratic and transparent means” and it “demands that the Iraqi government compensate the victims of the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein’s government, as provided for in the constitution of Iraq.”

Human Rights Watch said the tribunal “must improve its practices if it is to do justice in the upcoming Anfal trial.”

“The Anfal campaign was a genocide carried out against part of the Kurdish population,” Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program, according to a statement quoting him. “Genocide is the most serious crime there is, and it’s essential that the tribunal conducts the Anfal trial fairly.”

But the group believes the tribunal “is presently incapable of fairly and effectively trying a genocide case in accordance with international standards and current international criminal law.”

“Our investigation showed the Iraqi government ordered the extermination of part of its Kurdish population,” said Dicker. “But individual guilt or innocence in the Anfal case can only be determined through a fair trial, where the accused are able to mount an effective defense.”

Kurds “continue to live with the legacy of suffering and bodies continue to be unearthed from mass graves,” the Kurdish Regional Government said.

“The crimes have left behind a generation of women who lost their husbands, and children who lost their fathers, uncles and grandfathers. The Iraqi government’s acts have resulted in illnesses from chemical weapons exposure, unusually high rates of cancer, large numbers of internally displaced persons, and families still fighting to reclaim their homes and lands.”

Report: 71 Taliban killed in clash

Afghan and NATO forces battled Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan’s volatile south with rockets, artillery and airstrikes killing 71 militants Sunday in one of the country’s bloodiest clashes in five years.

Five Afghan troops were also killed in the series of battles, which started late Saturday and spilled into Sunday morning after the Taliban attacked a police convoy in Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, said Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, the district government chief.

Militants ambushed another police patrol in western Afghanistan’s Farah province, sparking a gunbattle that left one officer and two attackers dead, a regional governor said.

Afghanistan’s southern provinces are bearing the brunt of the worst bout of violence since U.S.-led forces toppled the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001. Taliban holdouts and allied extremists have stepped up attacks in a bid to undermine the American-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Separately, three U.S. soldiers were killed and three others wounded during a fight with Taliban militants in Pech district in eastern Kunar province on Saturday, said Col. Tom Collins, the U.S. military spokesman.

Their combat patrol struck a homemade bomb before they engaged “a group of Taliban extremists,” a U.S. military statement said.

Also Saturday, a U.S. soldier was killed and three others wounded in a four-hour clash with more than 100 insurgents in southern Uruzgan province, officials said. One Afghan soldier also died.

In Panjwayi, NATO troops used artillery and aircraft to inflict “heavy casualties against Taliban fighters,” an alliance statement said.

“It was a sizable engagement,” said Toby Jackman, a NATO force spokesman. He called the clash part of an ongoing operation “to extend security” along the 420 kilometer (260 mile) Kabul-Kandahar highway.

The bodies of 71 slain militants were found in three locations, scattered through orchards alongside their weapons, Sarhadi said.

“The police are still searching for more dead bodies of Taliban,” he said.

Four police and one Afghan soldier were also killed in the clashes, officials said. Three police and five soldiers were wounded and three police are missing.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, claimed insurgents killed “scores” of police and damaged 10 of their vehicles before a NATO airstrike left just 12 militants dead and eight wounded.

Ahmadi often contacts journalists to claim attacks for the Taliban, but his exact ties to the militia’s leadership are unclear.

In the western Farah province, attackers ambushed a highway police patrol, killing one officer before two attackers were shot dead, said Ghulam Dastagir Azad, the governor of neighboring Nimroz province.

The ambush in Bakwa district of the western Farah province also resulted in six officers and three attackers being wounded, he said.

Azad referred to the attackers as “enemies” — a term usually used by Afghan officials to refer to the Taliban — but was unable to provide their motive.

Farah has been relatively untouched by the spiraling violence in bordering southern provinces like Helmand and Nimroz.

But officials have said intense U.S. and NATO-led military operations in the south during recent months have pushed some militants further north into areas like Farah, where they have also started launching low-scale ambushes and bombings.

20 pilgrims killed, hundreds wounded in Baghdad

Gunmen opened fire on crowds of Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad Sunday, killing at least 20 and wounding more than 300 others, according to police and health ministry officials.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims crowded the streets of the Iraqi capital, heading to the shrine of an eighth century imam, Musa al-Kadhim, to commemorate his death.

Gunmen on the streets and snipers from the rooftops opened fire on the crowds in six Baghdad neighborhoods, police said.

Aware that this weekend’s pilgrimage would be an opportunity for sectarian attacks, Iraqi authorities instituted a vehicle and cycle ban from late Friday to early Monday to try to prevent car bombings and drive-by shootings in a city where Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife has killed thousands.

Iraqi security forces also established more checkpoints and patrols all over Baghdad and especially on the roads and streets that lead to the neighborhood of the shrine.

Last year, nearly 1,000 pilgrims were killed during the commemoration when rumors of suicide bombers triggered a mass stampede on a Tigris River bridge.

Members of the Mehdi Army — who back anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — established temporary checkpoints to search pilgrims one by one to stop bombs or suicide attackers from killing Shiite pilgrims.

An Iraqi government statement said it is forbidden to carry weapons, cell phones and any type of bags into the shrine, and army officials were searching people in the streets.

Al-Kadhim — one of the 12 historic Shiite imams beloved by the faithful — is buried at the Kadhimiya mosque, the largest Shiite mosque in the capital.

The pilgrims waved black flags standing for sadness and green flags standing for the 12 imams.

In two other attacks in Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on Iraqi police patrols, wounding two officers in one incident and four in the other, a Baghdad emergency police official said.

Meanwhile, in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba, two brothers were killed in a a drive-by shooting Sunday morning, according to an official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center.

In a separate attack, another pair of brothers — both members of the police — were killed in a shooting, and their father was wounded, as they walked down the street in southern Baquba, the official said.

Iraq tribunal under scrutiny

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein will go on trial Monday accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988.

The deadly assaults in the Kurdish region included the former regime’s alleged use of poison gas.

It is believed that about 100,000 Kurds were killed and 3,000 villages destroyed in the operation. Those who survived were illegally detained and later executed.

Iraq’s Kurds, who are seeking justice for the well-documented attacks, welcome the trial. But one major human rights watchdog group that has helped educate the world about the Anfal campaign worries that the tribunal won’t do its victims justice.

Human Rights Watch — which has tracked, documented and decried the Anfal campaign for years — says the Iraqi tribunal is “incapable” of handling the proceeding fairly, judging from its performance during the ongoing Dujail trial.

On the other hand, U.S. officials say the tribunal officials learned a lot from their experiences during the Dujail proceeding and have improved their performance.

The Dujail trial, which began last October, focused on a government crackdown in 1982 against Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination attempt against Hussein there.

The crackdown resulted in the deaths of 148 Shiite males, the mistreatment of many residents and the destruction of property.

That trial adjourned last month, and resumes in mid-October, when verdicts are expected for Hussein and seven co-defendants, including Hussein’s half-brother Barzan Hassan.

The Dujail proceeding was criticized by many observers for its delays, procedural problems and inadequate security for attorneys. Critics said Hussein and Hassan turned the trial into a circus with frequent interruptions and constant harangues.

The legal machinery for the Anfal case got rolling as the Dujail trial was ending.

Hussein and six co-defendants, including Ali Hassan al-Majeed, a former Iraqi general known as “Chemical Ali,” are on trial in the Anfal case. “Anfal” means “spoils” in Arabic.

All face charges of war crimes related to an internal armed conflict and crimes against humanity. Hussein and al-Majeed have been charged with genocide.

France defends sending 200 troops

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Friday defended France’s decision to send just 200 additional troops to reinforce the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon and reiterated that the force needs a clear mandate to operate effectively.

“I can’t let it be said or implied that France is not doing its duty in the Lebanese crisis,” the minister told French radio RTL in an interview.

“Since the start of the crisis, France is on the frontline and it is the top contributor.”

France announced on Thursday it was doubling its contingent to 400 troops. It currently leads the UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon, and its decision-making on its role in a strengthened force has been closely watched.

The announcement from Paris was a disappointment to some at the U.N. who expected more, though it did not dissuade countries from pledging a total of 3,500 troops for the expanded force in a meeting in New York on Thursday.

Alliot-Marie pointed out that France was willing to continue leading the force as it expands from the current 2,000 troops to as many as 15,000.

The strengthened force is expected to work with about 15,000 Lebanese troops to restore peace to southern Lebanon after more than a month of violence between Israeli troops and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia.

Alliot-Marie also said she would keep in place 1,700 troops mobilized in the region who in recent weeks evacuated French and other foreign nationals from Lebanon and sent in humanitarian aid from aircraft based on French warships off the Lebanese coast.

France and Italy — another potential European contributor — have said the peacekeeping mandate is not explicit enough, and demanded the U.N. set clear rules of engagement for troops bolstering the force.

“You have to tell the troops why they are there. To support the Lebanese army, certainly, but to what extent? In what fields? Secondly, we also need to know what are the material and judicial means at our disposal,” said Alliot-Marie.

“You can’t send in men and tell them: ‘Look at what is going on, (but) you don’t have the right to defend yourself or to shoot’,” she said.

French officials are particularly concerned about how the expanded force is expected to interact with Hezbollah, the militant group whose fighters who shot nearly 4,000 rockets into Israel during more than a month of fighting with Israeli troops.

Alliot-Marie said troop contributions to the expanded UNIFIL force should come from a great number of countries, both in Europe and the Muslim world.

“What we must absolutely avoid is giving the image of a Western world imposing peace on the Muslim world,” she said.

Intensified fighting due to the countdown of cease-fire

Israel and Hezbollah pounded targets with heavy missile barrages Sunday, looking to inflict maximum damage in the final hours before a cease-fire resolution was to go into effect.

The cease-fire is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. local time (0500 GMT).

Israel reported that 250 rockets hit its territory, including the port city of Haifa. At least one person was killed in the rocket attacks.

The Israel Defense Forces, meanwhile, launched what appeared to be one of the heaviest bombardments on southern Lebanon in the 33-day-old conflict, and struck targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The IDF said it carried out more than 100 aerial attacks Sunday targeting Hezbollah militants.

The IDF said five soldiers were killed Sunday in heavy fighting against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon. Another 25 soldiers were wounded, including four seriously, the IDF said.

Lebanese officials reported at least three people killed and eight wounded near the eastern town of Ali al-Nahri, identifying the dead as civilians.

At least four people were killed and 15 were wounded in an airstrike on the village of Brital, in the Bekaa Valley, hospital officials said.

Lebanese army sources said the IDF hit a truck distributing food and hit a Lebanese army base, killing a Lebanese soldier.

An Israeli missile landed at about 10 p.m. in the port area of Tyre in southern Lebanon. Power in most of the city was out.

Cannon fire from helicopters echoed over Tyre, and small-arms fire was heard coming from south of the city.

The Israeli military said it shot down two Hezbollah drones Sunday, one flying over Israel and the other in the area of Tyre.

“It’s time to do all we can to destroy as much as we can of the infrastructure in the next 12 or 13 hours, and then we’ll see what is next,” former Prime Minister Ehud Barak told CNN.

Nouhad Mahmoud, Lebanese representative to the United Nations, countered, “I don’t understand why we need this grand finale.”

He questioned what Israel thinks it could achieve in a matter of hours “that they couldn’t achieve in one month.”

Mahmoud acknowledged that Hezbollah set off the conflict, when its militants crossed into Israel last month, killed three Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others.

“They just started it, and the Israelis took the rest,” he said.

Lebanon postpones meeting

It was unclear what effect the scheduled cease-fire will have.

The two Hezbollah members of the Lebanese Cabinet said Saturday the militia wanted to keep its weapons south of the Litani River — a zone the U.N. resolution calls for demilitarizing.

Yet the Cabinet unanimously approved the resolution. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah indicated that the two Hezbollah ministers voted for it in a spirit of national unity.

The Lebanese Cabinet planned to meet Sunday to discuss implementing the plan, but then postponed the meeting for up to two days.

A Lebanese government minister said the postponement came at the request of parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, a key negotiator with Hezbollah, to give government officials more time to discuss the plan with Hezbollah.

Sources in Berri’s office denied the report.

The postponement sparked concern worldwide among leaders with high hopes for the resolution.

A senior Lebanese government source said Prime Minister Fouad Siniora received calls from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, French President Jacques Chirac and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The White House confirmed that Rice spoke with Siniora, but a White House spokesman did not know who initiated that call. The State Department had no immediate comment.

The senior Lebanese government source said Bush called Siniora as well, but the White House denied that.

The source also said Annan told Siniora that if Hezbollah maintains its position against disarmament south of the Litani, an international force can’t go into Lebanon.

The U.N. resolution calls on Israel to pull out of southern Lebanon as an international force and Lebanese troops come in.

Two U.N. ships carrying more than 4,500 tons of food and humanitarian supplies docked Sunday in Beirut, officials with the U.N.’s World Food Program said.

‘Days of uncertainty’ ahead

Israel said it planned to abide by the resolution, which calls on Israel to halt “offensive” military actions.

“This is our full and unequivocal intention,” said Isaac Herzog, Israeli Minister of Tourism and a member of the Cabinet, which Sunday approved U.N. Resolution 1701.

But Israeli officials also acknowledged it remains unclear what actions could be construed as “offensive.”

“What if some trucks will come from Syria with new launchers and rockets? If we attack them, some might say it’s not defensive,” said Barak. “If we don’t, it will end up with just another opportunity for Hezbollah to regroup.”

Acknowledging that “the next few days are days of uncertainty,” Israeli commander Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz said Israel will adhere to the cease-fire if Hezbollah does not fire at its forces or civilians.

Israel: No pullout until other forces arrive

Israel has made clear it will not immediately pull out, but will wait until other forces arrive to prevent the Hezbollah militia from again taking over the area on Israel’s northern border.

“We ask that there not be a vacuum … a situation in which the IDF exits and there remains a vacuum there and the Hezbollah returns to those places where it left, or alternately remains in those places,” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Sunday.

Barak, in a CNN interview, said, “It will not be fully quiet — that’s the major risk — until the international force will come.”

Fighting in the region has left close to 900 Lebanese dead and more than 3,500 wounded, according to Lebanese Internal Security Forces.

The Israeli military said at least 105 military personnel and 41 civilians have been been killed, and more than 1,000 people have been wounded.

Stress sent soldiers to drink and drugs, colleague testifies

Stressed-out soldiers drank whiskey and downed painkillers to try to cope with “mentally draining” duty in Iraq, a private testified Tuesday.

Troops turned to alcohol and drugs as they dealt with fears of being attacked and killed, Pfc Justin Cross said.

“It drives you nuts. You feel like every step you might get blown up. You just hit a point where you ‘re like, ‘If I die today, I die.’ You’re just walking a death walk.”

Cross described what was going on in his unit to a military hearing that will decide whether courts-martial will be launched against serving colleagues accused of raping an Iraqi girl and murdering her and her family in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, five months ago.

The Mahmoudiya inquiry is one of several examples of alleged atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Iraq now being investigated.

Soldiers began recounting the killings of a raped teenager and her family when they were being given stress counseling after two other members of their unit were kidnapped from a checkpoint and killed.

The killings of the soldiers “pretty much crushed the platoon,” said Cross, of the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment. “For a while we were down, but we got back.”

The unit also lost of all its belongings on February 5 when the building in which they were living burned down.

Cross said his unit went on long rotations outside its forward base, sometimes spending several weeks without hot food and showers or contact with family and friends.

He testified that he and other soldiers were constantly in fear and said the unit was “full of despair.”

The Army’s surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, said last month that deployments in Iraq put heavy mental stress on troops and that some will need counseling.

Kiley said 15 percent to 30 percent of troops returning from Iraq have mental health issues but that was not unusual.

Up to one in 20 troops take antidepressants, the Army says, but cannot compare that to previous conflicts.

Mental-health teams have been sent to the front lines in both Iraq and Afghanistan to give support and Kiley is to head a new 14-member task force to recommend improvements in care for troops and their families.

Cough syrup, painkillers

Cross told the military hearing that some of those accused of rape and murder were among colleagues who drank whiskey and cough syrup and swallowed painkillers to cope with their jobs.

The accused soldiers were drinking whiskey when one of them raised the idea of raping the girl, according to earlier testimony in the Article 32 hearing that will determine if there is enough evidence for courts-martial where the suspects could face the death penalty.

Spec. James Barker, 23; Sgt. Paul Cortez, 23; Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 21; and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, 19, face charges in connection with the killings in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, on March 12.

Former Pfc. Steven Green, who was discharged from the Army in May because of an “anti-social personality disorder” and returned to the United States, is facing rape and murder charges in a civilian federal court. He is being held in a Kentucky jail.

A sixth soldier, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, has been charged with failing to report the alleged rape and killings but is not alleged to have been a participant.

All six men are from the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Cross said he saw Barker, one of the suspects, almost killed during a sweep for homemade bombs and said he survived because he was in a Humvee.

Iraqi authorities have identified the girl who was raped and shot to death as Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, 14. Her father, mother and 5-year-old sister were also killed.

‘He does nothing by himself’

Green and other soldiers accused in the case had sought help from their company commander for combat stress.

The soldiers’ battalion commander, Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk, testified earlier this week that he recalled Green saying that “all Iraqis are bad people.”

“I told him that that wasn’t true and that 90 to 95 percent of the Iraqi people are good people and they want the same thing that we have in the United States,” Kunk said.

Defense attorney Capt. Megan Shaw questioned Cross about whether all of the soldiers were involved in the murders, or whether it was possible that Green did it alone.

Leaflets urge residents to stay off roads south of Litani River

The Israeli military dropped leaflets Tuesday over the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, warning of stepped-up operations and urging people to stay off the roads or risk being a target.

The leaflet drop coincided with consideration by Israel’s Security Cabinet of a possible expansion of the military offensive in southern Lebanon as well as with international efforts to bring the fighting to a halt.

CNN’s Karl Penhaul reported Tuesday from Tyre that Israeli warplanes and artillery were pounding suspected Hezbollah positions south of the city.

Humanitarian aid workers said they fear a two-day bombardment six miles south of the city may be a prelude to a ground attack, Penhaul reported.

One of the leaflets, which a Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. reporter showed on the air, said that “terrorist elements … are using you as human shields by launching rockets toward the state of Israel from your homes.”

The translated leaflet continued, “All cars and of any type will be shelled if seen moving south of the Litani River because it will be considered a suspect of transferring rockets, military ammunitions and those causing destruction.”

The warning is in effect for all residents south of the Litani River. Tyre is the largest city in that region.

The area has been a launching point for Hezbollah’s rockets, more than 100 of which had been fired into northern Israel by Tuesday afternoon, Israeli police said. Many militants drive mobile launchers into cornfields, fire the rockets and then disappear, according to CNN’s Brent Sadler.

Tyre has faced artillery fire and heavy bombardment from Israeli warships off the Lebanese coast.

On Monday, Israeli airstrikes destroyed the main road connecting Tyre to northern Lebanon.

Also destroyed was a makeshift bridge spanning the Litani River in Qasmiye, about six miles (10 kilometers) north of Tyre. The U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, said it was working with Lebanese authorities and the Israeli military to put up a temporary bridge there.

A spokesman for Doctors Without Borders said the destruction from airstrikes forced the aid group to bring supplies into Tyre by forming a human chain across the Litani.

The group runs a clinic in Tyre and has been sending in mobile teams to provide medical care and aid to civilians in the city.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was able to win “freedom of movement” for its convoys, which have been providing aid to people in the region, Red Cross spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin said Tuesday.

Thousands of people are still believed to be living in shelters in southern Lebanon villages, Huguenin-Benjamin added. While the Red Cross is allowed to bring ships into the Lebanese ports of Tyre and Sidon, he said, damaged roads have hindered the delivery of aid into the countryside.

Lebanese proposal under consideration

As combat between Israel and Hezbollah continued, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Security Cabinet on Wednesday will consider expanding the southern Lebanon military offensive.

Olmert expressed cautious optimism toward a Lebanese proposal to deploy 15,000 troops to the southern border with Israel, calling the idea “interesting.”

The proposal, reached by Lebanon’s government late Monday, is for its troops to deploy to southern Lebanon if Israeli forces leave the country.

Israel has resisted calls for a withdrawal, saying it will only do so once the Hezbollah militia is disarmed.

Lebanon and its Arab League allies have been pressing the United Nations for an immediate Israeli withdrawal as part of a deal to end the fighting.

Such a withdrawal is not mentioned in the U.N. draft resolution by the United States and France.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet with the Arab League delegation around 3 p.m. Tuesday.

President Bush on Monday said he anticipates that Hezbollah and Israel will not agree with all aspects of a Mideast cease-fire resolution but said “we all recognize that the violence must stop.”

Airstrikes and rocket attacks

The Israel Defense Forces reported it carried out 82 airstrikes in Lebanon overnight targeting buildings, access routes and missile launchers.

Lebanese security forces put the Lebanese death toll at more than 776, most of them civilians.

Overnight combat also left one Israeli soldier dead and four wounded, officials said Tuesday.

The death brings the Israeli death toll in the nearly month-old conflict to 98, including 35 civilians killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Hezbollah rocket fire wounded two people in Israel on Tuesday, police said. Rockets hit the towns of Safed, Kiryat Shmona and Maalot, and open fields near Akko, Tiberias, Safed and Naharia, some setting fields ablaze and causing damage to buildings, police said.

According to the IDF, Hezbollah fighters in Dabel fired anti-tank missiles on Israeli troops with deadly results.

Israeli forces killed four Hezbollah fighters in the village of Al Mansouri and three others in the villages of Bint Jbeil and Ramiya, the IDF said. Five guerrillas were taken prisoner in Bint Jbeil and Shihin, according to the Israeli military.

Bint Jbeil has been the scene of heavy fighting since the Israeli campaign began July 12, when Hezbollah sparked the crisis by capturing two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.