Carrick might be sidelined

Manchester United’s new £18.6m signing Michael Carrick is set to miss the start of the Premiership season after injuring his left foot against Ajax. The midfielder lasted just 14 minutes on his second appearance before getting injured in a tackle from behind.

“It looks like he could be out for three weeks, there’s a lot of swelling,” said boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

Ryan Giggs’ free-kick gave United a 1-0 win and meant they were the winners of the four-team LG Amsterdam tournament.

Ferguson added: “Michael has ligament damage to his ankle and it is difficult to say how long he will be out because we don’t know his record with injuries.

“But it looks like he could be out for three weeks and it is a real blow for the young lad. He wanted to do really well for us and this has knocked him back a bit.

“But we have to handle it. Injuries are part of the game and we have plenty of good players in the squad who can take his place.

“I’m not going to complain about the challenge, though, because the referee showed tolerance tonight and that’s what you want.

“You don’t want to see players sent off in pre-season friendlies.”

Carrick’s debut against Porto on Friday was marred by sendings off for Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes, who could now collect bans from the FA.

Manchester United’s first league game is against Fulham on 20 August and Ferguson already has several injury worries with Gary Neville, Gabriel Heinze and Nemanja Vidic all currently sidelined.

Rio Ferdinand and John O’Shea both picked up injuries against Porto although both should be fit for the start of the season.

“Your hope for the start of every season is a clean bill of health,” said Ferguson.

“The last two years have been horrendous for us in terms of injuries. I was hoping we would get a free run this year but it hasn’t happened.

“But we have a big squad and we have to get on with it. We have great experience and hopefully that will give us a good chance.”

Chelsea might miss Cole for the fisrt few matches in the Premiership

Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole could miss the start of the Premiership season after suffering a knee injury during the 1-0 defeat by MLS All-Stars. Cole had been on the pitch in Chicago for just five minutes before leaving the action clutching his right knee.

“Everybody is worried because I think it’s something to do with his knee ligaments,” said boss Jose Mourinho.

“We will have to wait until we go back to London to see the specialist but he looks really injured.”

Dwayne De Rosario scored the winner for the Major League Soccer side in the 70th minute but Mourinho was more concerned by Cole’s injury.

“That’s a real problem,” he said. “If you tell me there is no problem with Joe Cole and we lose 10-0 then that is better

“The problem today is that we don’t want injuries, especially in pre-season.”

Mourinho added: “It’s a problem because he is a big player for us. He was only on for five minutes but he gave a lot to the game during that time.

“You could see his quality as a player. He is a player that I need but don’t have.”

Iraq rape-slaying hearing begins

A preliminary hearing began Sunday for four U.S. soldiers charged in connection with the rape and slaying of an Iraqi female and the killings of her family earlier this year in Mahmoudiya, Iraq.

Three witnesses took the stand on the first day of the Article 32 hearing at Camp Victory near Baghdad, including an Iraqi army medic who gave graphic testimony about the state of the bodies.

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Spec. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard were all charged with conspiring with former Pfc. Steven D. Green to commit the crimes, the military said.

The four could face the death penalty, the military has said.

A fifth soldier, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, was charged with failing to report the rape and killings but is not alleged to have been a direct participant. He is not facing an Article 32 hearing at this time.

Green, who was discharged from the Army in May due an “anti-social personality disorder,” faces rape and murder charges in federal court. He is being held in a Kentucky jail, where last month he was granted a three-month delay in his arraignment. He has pleaded not guilty.

All six are from the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) out of Fort Campbell, Ky.

The incident took place in March in Mahmoudiya, just south of Baghdad. A Justice Department affidavit filed in Green’s case says Green and other soldiers planned the rape.

The affidavit says Green shot and killed the woman’s relatives, including a girl of about 5 years of age; raped the woman; then fatally shot her. It says the incident took place “on or about March 12, 2006.”

Soldiers are quoted in the affidavit as telling investigators that Green and his companions then set the family’s house afire, threw the AK-47 rifle used in the killings into a nearby canal and burned their bloodstained clothing.

There is some confusion over the alleged rape victim’s age. Identity cards and death certificates of the victims, which were obtained by Reuters news agency, show that the alleged rape victim was Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, with the birth date August 19, 1991. The mayor of Mahmoudiya confirmed her identity and birth date to CNN.

The U.S. military had previously referred to the alleged rape victim as a “young Iraqi woman.”

A Justice Department affidavit in the case against Green says investigators estimated her age at about 25, while the U.S. military said she was 20.

Al-Zawahiri: Egyptian militant group joins al Qaeda

Al Qaeda has joined forces with the long-quiet Egyptian militant group Al-Jamaa Islamiya, according to a videotaped message from Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant that aired Saturday.

Ayman al-Zawahiri said in the message that the two groups will form “one line, facing its enemies.”

“May God give us victory with his help,” the Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri said on the tape. It aired on the Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera.

It was unclear how many members of Al-Jamaa Islamiya would join al Qaeda’s ranks.

In September 2003 Egypt freed more than 1,000 members of the group because of the group’s stated “commitment to rejecting violence,” then-Interior Minister Habib el-Adli told Al-Jazeera at the time. Egypt released another 900 members of the group, including founder Najeh Ibrahim, in April 2006.

Among those set free in 2003 was the group’s leader, Karam Zuhdi, who expressed regret for conspiring with Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Al-Zawahiri is the founder of present-day Egyptian Islamic Jihad and worked in the 1970s to overthrow Sadat and establish an Islamic state. In 1981 he was jailed on conspiracy charges in the Sadat assassination, but was later acquitted.

Al-Jamaa Islamiya renounced bloodshed in 1998 after a wave of violence that claimed about 1,300 lives. Included was a 1997 terror attack against tourists in Luxor in which 71 were killed.

According to the Web site trackingthethreat.com, which describes itself as “a database of open-source information about the al Qaeda terrorist network,” Al-Jamaa Islamiya emerged during the 1970s, forming in Egyptian jails and later in some Egyptian universities.

Thousands of Iraqis rally for Hezbolla

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Baghdad on Friday, enthusiastically voicing support for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia.

Angry protesters chanted slogans, burned Israeli flags and waved Lebanese and Hezbollah flags in the Iraqi capital’s densely populated Shiite enclave of Sadr City. They also held up placards with the portrait of Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah.

The Shiite militant group Hezbollah has been fighting Israel in a fierce cross-border war that so far has claimed the lives of 644 Lebanese and 68 Israelis.

Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife has plagued Iraq in recent months, but many Iraqis have been incensed over the recent fighting in Lebanon. Of Iraq’s 26 million people, 60 percent are believed to be Shiite Muslims.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has criticized Israel over its assault on targets in Lebanon. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — who has a strong following in the Shiite neighborhood — also has denounced Israel.

Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers sparked the fighting in a cross-border raid July 12.

Baghdad’s march came on the heels of Thursday’s Senate testimony from the commander of U.S. forces in the Mideast warning that if Iraqi violence is not brought under control, particularly in the capital, the country could descend into civil war.

Car bombings, clashes in Mosul

Insurgents and police slugged it out Friday across the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving three police officers and an unknown number of insurgents dead.

The clashes led officials to enforce a citywide curfew until dawn on Saturday.

The violence erupted as 3,500 U.S. troops were being moved from the Mosul area to Baghdad to help bolster security in the capital.

Fighting raged in at least eight neighborhoods in Mosul, the largest city in Iraq’s northern tier about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

At least 80 insurgents drove vehicles into several neighborhoods and attacked police patrols and checkpoints, police said.

Two car bombs also went off. In one of the attacks, Col. Jassim Mohammed Bilal, a police battalion commander, and two other police officers were slain when attackers targeted his convoy in the eastern Noor neighborhood, said Nineveh province Gov. Duraid Kashmoula.

Police and civilians were wounded in the blast. The bodies of an unknown number of insurgents were strewn on the ground across the city.

South of Mosul, a suicide bomber in a pickup struck a police patrol near a sports field Thursday night, killing 10 people, according to a Mosul police official.

Three police officers were among the dead, and 12 others, including seven police, were wounded in the attack in Hadhar, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) south of Mosul.

Bridges and roads destroyed in Beirut

Israeli aircraft blasted main roadways north of Beirut for the first time in the three-week conflict on Friday, knocking out four key bridges.

In southern Lebanon, security officials reported that Israeli airstrikes flattened houses in two villages burying 57 people under rubble, according to The Associated Press. No other details were immediately available.

The Beirut attacks severed the last major overland route for relief supplies into Lebanon, international aid agencies told The Associated Press on Friday.

“This is Lebanon’s umbilical cord,” Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Program told AP. “This [road] has been the only way for us to bring in aid. We really need to find other ways to bring relief in.”

In addition, as Lebanese fuel supplies dwindled, a Lebanese government official said Israel was preventing two fuel tankers anchored off the coast from docking and unloading their cargo.

But Israel Defense Forces said it has given approval for the tankers to dock. The government-contracted ships are laden with fuel that could be used at electrical power stations.

Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Dan Gillerman told CNN that Israel is cooperating with the United Nations’ to keep supplies flowing.

“We have established two corridors, one by sea and one by land, through which the United Nations and other agencies can actually provide all the aid they want,” Gillerman said.

“We’re working very closely with the United Nations organizations to make sure that it reaches the people, but everybody understands this is a war zone. This is not easy.”

Israel also launched airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs held by Hezbollah, continuing the conflict that began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12. Most Israeli attacks hit the Oozaee area, a Hezbollah power base and also the location of several Palestinian refugee camps.

Hezbollah militants fired 135 Katyusha rockets into northern Israel on Friday, killing three civilians and wounding one in Tiberias and one in Safed, Israeli police said.

Israeli forces and Hezbollah continued to fight in southern Lebanon, and three Israeli soldiers were killed, officials said.

An Israeli strike killed about 25 people in the village of Qaa in northeast Lebanon, according to Darweesh Hobeika, general manager of Lebanon’s civil defense. A hospital official and the mayor said all the casualties were Syrian. Qaa is in the northern Bekaa Valley, close to the Syrian border.

Lebanese security forces said several people were wounded in the strike, which hit the parking lot of a site in which fruits and vegetables are stored. The security forces said most of the casualties were employees or truck drivers.

Israel Defense Forces has made no comment about the report. Qaa is near Baalbeck, an area the IDF has said Hezbollah uses for militant operations.

In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets on Friday, enthusiastically voicing support for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia.

Unease and desperation

As Israel tightened its noose around Beirut — limiting movement by Hezbollah guerrillas — it also ratcheted up the sense of unease and desperation among all its residents, CNN’s Brent Sadler reported.

The airstrike on the city’s northern Maameltain bridge killed two Lebanese people, Lebanese Red Cross said. LBC-TV reported the two victims were in vehicles on the bridge, which is located in a Christian neighborhood of eastern Beirut.

Lebanese television showed a stretch of highway full of craters, concrete boulders and dust.

Traffic was paralyzed as Israel bombed the major northern routes out of the capital. Frustrating lines at gasoline stations stretched for blocks. Other roadways were intact but Lebanese Internal Security Forces closed them to traffic, fearing renewed strikes, LBC reported.

Lebanese Red Cross also reported one person dead and one missing after the Fidar-Halat bridge collapsed Friday. Israeli aircraft also took out the Madfoun and Casino bridges, according to Arab media.

Israeli forces on Friday also struck Ibrahim Abdel Aal power plant, which provides most of the western Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon with power, LBC reported.

As of Friday, 675 Lebanese civilians and soldiers have died in the three-week conflict, and 2,327 have been wounded, according to Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces.

The Israel Defense Forces said the Israeli death toll stands at 74 since the conflict started, including 30 civilians and 44 soldiers. Israeli authorities say more than 600 people have been injured.

Israel’s highway attacks in the north of Beirut and on Hezbollah strongholds in the south of the capital came the day after an Israeli airdrop of leaflets over several Beirut neighborhoods warning residents to leave “for your own safety.”

The leaflets warned of an expansion of the Israeli campaign in Beirut because Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into Israel and because of statements made Thursday by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

On Thursday, Nasrallah vowed to strike Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israel’s bombardment of the Lebanese capital.

U.N. cease-fire resolution

On the diplomatic front, the U.S. State Department said it hoped for a cease-fire resolution in the United Nations by Friday, but U.S. diplomats were prepared to work into the weekend to achieve a deal.

On Thursday, France circulated a revised draft resolution for the U.N. Security Council calling for an immediate halt to Israeli-Hezbollah fighting and spelling out conditions for a permanent cease-fire in Lebanon.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN’s “Larry King Live” that Israelis “have their own capabilities to deal with these threats.”

Head of U.S. command: Iraq civil war possible

The head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid, acknowledged Thursday that Iraq could descend into civil war.

“I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I’ve seen it, in Baghdad in particular. And that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war,” he testified at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Failure to apply coordinated regional and international pressure … will further extremism” and could lead to a widening and more perilous conflict, he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who also testified, reiterated his position that a withdrawal of U.S. troops must be based on evolving conditions. He said troops must not be withdrawn “prematurely” and said the enemy wants to see U.S. public opinion divided.

Sen. John McCain asked Gen. Peter Pace, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Abizaid if they had anticipated sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shiites a year ago.

Pace said he hadn’t expected it. Abizaid said it was clear tensions were rising, but he did not expect such a high level of sectarian violence.

“As the primary security problem in Iraq has shifted from a Sunni insurgency to sectarian violence, al Qaeda terrorists, insurgents and Shia militants compete to plunge the country into civil war,” Abizaid said.

British envoy warned of civil war

The hearing came on the heels of a leaked diplomatic cable, in which Britain’s outgoing ambassador to Baghdad, William Patey, warned that civil war was more likely than a successful transition to democracy in Iraq.

Abizaid defined three main objectives in dealing with the Middle East, which he said he has “rarely seen … so unsettled and so volatile.” Those aims were defeating al Qaeda; deterring Iran; and developing a comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He was optimistic, however, that the “slide can be prevented.”

“The army is holding together … and the government is committed to bringing the sectarian violence under control,” Abizaid said.

‘A game of whack-a-mole’

Sectarian killings in Iraq have escalated since the February 22 bombing of the Shiite Askariya Mosque in Samarra. Nearly 6,000 people died in Iraq violence in May and June alone, according to a recent U.N. report.

McCain was also concerned that U.S. troops are moved from one trouble spot to another. “What I worry about is — we’re playing a game of whack-a-mole.”

He cited Falluja and Ramadi as examples. “Everybody knows we’ve got big problems in Ramadi, and I said, ‘Where are you going to get the troops?’ ‘Well we’re going to have to move them from Falluja.’

“Now we’re going to have to move troops into Baghdad from someplace else,” he said referring to the deployment of U.S. troops to the capital to support Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s crackdown on insurgents. “It’s very disturbing.”

Fears of warfare spreading

Senators fear that the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon could threaten missions in places like Iraq.

In his testimony, Rumsfeld said the government must not allow “our country or our interests or our forces put at greater risk as a result of what is taking place between Israel and Hezbollah.”

He said Iran is a major risk because of its support of terror groups such as Hezbollah and its ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons.

Abizaid warned that if “nonstate” enemies of the United States dominate this century, “We are in for even greater dangers.

“It should not be lost on us, for example, that Hezbollah fields greater and longer-range weapons than most regional armed forces.

“If left unchecked, it is possible to imagine chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons being transferred to militias or terrorist organizations by a state actor.”

Rumsfeld’s reversal

At first, Rumsfeld said he would not appear at the hearing but would brief members of Congress in an already scheduled closed-door meeting Thursday afternoon. He changed his mind after receiving criticism from Capitol Hill.

Democrats said Rumsfeld has not appeared before the committee in a public session since February, while Republicans privately expressed concern about the war.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has pushed for Rumsfeld to testify in a public hearing, said she was pleased with what she called the secretary’s “11th- hour decision to reverse course.”

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid asked him to cancel the afternoon closed-door session and request the secretary’s presence in the morning’s open session.

Rumsfeld’s relations with Congress have been testy at times. He has occasionally resisted testifying publicly on controversial subjects, including the debate over whether high-level officials should be held accountable for the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

In the spring, a group of retired generals criticized his performance and called for his resignation.

Hezbolla striking back with 160 rockets

Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 160 rockets Thursday, killing seven Israelis and injuring several, Israeli police said, after Israel resumed airstrikes on Beirut’s suburbs.

Four were killed in Acre, Israel, just north of Haifa, and three died in the Maalot area, which is closer to the Lebanese border, police said.

On the diplomatic front, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that an agreement on a call from the United Nations Security Council for a cease-fire could come within days.

But Hezbollah’s press officer told CNN that a cease-fire will not stop the militant group from fighting Israeli soldiers “on our soil” — land that the militant group defines as encompassing the disputed Shebaa Farms region, occupied by Israel.

“No one can stop us from fighting the Israeli soldiers on our soil as long as there is one occupied meter of land,” Hussein Rahal said. “Even if there is a cease-fire.”

Hezbollah has stated in the past that it will not disarm until Israeli troops leave Shebaa Farms, a small sliver of land near the Lebanon-Syria border that Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Middle East War.

Israel resumed its bombardment of southern Beirut Thursday, targeting Hezbollah sites in the militant stronghold as its ground forces continued to battle Hezbollah fighters across southern Lebanon.

Lebanese officials reported four civilian deaths Thursday from Israeli missile strikes in south Lebanon, according to The Associated Press.

As of mid-Thursday, 603 Lebanese civilians and soldiers have died and 2,288 have been wounded in the three-week-old Israeli military offensive against the Hezbollah militia, according to Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces.

As of the same time, Israel has reported 66 deaths — including 26 civilians, AP reported.

Overnight, the Israel Defense Forces said it pounded Hezbollah targets across Lebanon with 120 airstrikes, a day after the militant group fired 230 rockets into northern Israel.

It was the greatest number of rockets fired at Israel in a single day since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began three weeks ago.

Israeli forces are stationed across 11 villages in southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.

The Associated Press reported that Israel was trying clear Hezbollah from a five-mile-wide zone along the border before any international peacekeeping forces are deployed.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in Thursday’s fighting in southern Lebanon, the IDF said.

The IDF said its ground forces killed four Hezbollah fighters in the western part of southern Lebanon on Thursday.

Heavy fighting late Wednesday in the village of Aita Al-Shaab killed an Israeli soldier, according to the IDF. Another Israeli soldier was severely wounded fighting Hezbollah militants in the village of Mahbib.

Truce talks

Meanwhile, the United States, Britain, France and other Western powers are “working very hard” for an agreement to end the conflict, Blair said.

The sticking point is over the timing of a cease-fire. France and other European countries support Lebanon’s call for an immediate cease-fire. The United States and Britain have said an immediate cease-fire would not eliminate the long-term threat that Hezbollah imposes on Israel.

U.N. diplomats are discussing a two-pronged solution to ending the conflict: the cessation of hostilities followed by the deployment of a rapid-reaction force to southern Lebanon, according to U.N. and diplomatic sources speaking on condition of anonymity because talks were ongoing.

Then, a more expanded group of peacekeepers would be deployed with a mandate to enforce a more permanent cease-fire and establish a buffer zone, the sources said.

Blair criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who restated his call for the destruction of Israel saying that would end the current crisis in the Middle East.

The British leader said Ahmadinejad’s comments are “an indication of how important it is that we have a strong alliance of moderation to take on those people with such extreme views.”

Israel began its operation after Hezbollah militants crossed into northern Israel, kidnapped two soldiers and killed three others July 12.

Gaza strike reported

The Israeli military Thursday also launched an airstrike in Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians — including three militants — and blockaded the main road from Gaza to Khan Younis in the south, according to Palestinian security sources.

Two of the militants were Hamas members and one belonged to Islamic Jihad, the sources said.

The IDF confirmed that in Gaza, two armed groups — one with rocket-propelled grenades and the other with rifles — approached Israeli troops.

Aircraft then launched attacks on the two groups, IDF said.

Bush: Mideast cease-fire must achieve ‘a long-lasting peace’

President Bush insisted anew Monday that any Mideast cease-fire be conditioned on a wider agreement and said he would look to the United Nations to act to establish “a long-lasting peace, one that is sustainable.”

As Israel cut short a halt in bombing and launched new strikes in southern Lebanon, Bush spelled out a series of what he called “clear objectives” to accompany a halt in the fighting.

“Iran must end its financial support and supply of weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Syria must end its support for terror and respect the sovereignty of Lebanon,” Bush said in a speech at the Port of Miami.

Bush planned to meet later Monday in Washington with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who cut short her diplomatic mission and was returning from the Middle East.

“As we work with friends and allies, it’s important to remember this crisis began with Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks against Israel. Israel is exercising its right to defend itself,” Bush said, resisting mounting international pressure for an immediate cease-fire.

“We mourn the loss of innocent life, both in Lebanon and Israel,” he added.

Conditions for cease-fire

Other conditions for a cease-fire include a requirement that a multinational force be quickly sent to southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s government must be “empowered to exercise sole authority over its territory” and two Israeli soldiers taken by Hezbollah be returned.

Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, hours after agreeing to a 48-hour halt in the airstrikes while investigating a bombing that killed nearly 60 Lebanese civilians, mostly women and children seeking shelter.

Earlier, Bush said after meeting with Cuban-American business leaders at a Miami restaurant, “We want there to be a long-lasting peace, one that is sustainable.”

“I’ll speak to Condi Rice when she gets back tonight, talk about what she saw, what she heard in the Middle East. And, of course, there’ll be a way forward in the Security Council later this week,” Bush said.

“I assured the people here that we will work toward a plan at the United Nations Security Council that addresses the root causes of the problem, so that whatever comes out of the Security Council will be able to last and that the people of Lebanon and Israel will be able to remain in peace,” Bush said. “That’s what we want.”

Israel had left open the option it might hit targets to stop imminent attacks or if the military completed its inquiry within 48 hours. Monday’s airstrikes near the village of Taibeh were meant to protect ground forces operating in the area and were not targeting anyone or anything specific, the army said.

The Israelis told U.S. officials that ground operations were continuing, and Monday’s renewed air strikes were close-in support for operations against rocket launchers that were about to be used, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

There was an expectation that Israel would respond to threats of attack being prepared against it, the official said, saying there was no authorization to speak publicly on this subject.

The official added that it’s important that the aerial suspension be implemented to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered and safe passage to continue and that the United States believes suspension of air activity serves the purpose of investigating and preventing incidents like the one in the south Lebanese village of Qana, where dozens of civilians were killed by an Israeli attack.

Rice returns to Washington

The administration already had been immersed in tough diplomacy before Sunday, with Rice flying around the world and U.S. officials conferring steadily with counterparts at the United Nations, when international outrage flared.

Bush monitored the crisis over the weekend through phone calls with his top advisers as images of children’s bodies in the building’s ruins flashed on television screens across the world. Bush spoke three times with Rice, who cut short her diplomatic mission in the Mideast and headed back to Washington.

The U.N. Security Council met in emergency session and passed a statement expressing “extreme shock and distress” over Israel’s bombing of civilians. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sharply criticized world leaders — implicitly Washington — for ignoring his previous calls for an immediate cease-fire.

Rice, who met with Israeli leaders on Sunday, scuttled a trip to Lebanon after the bombing, which inflamed sentiment against the United States and Israel. Some 5,000 protesters gathered in downtown Beirut, attacking a U.N. building, burning American flags and shouting: “Destroy Tel Aviv! Destroy Tel Aviv!”

Israel declared that no cease-fire can be expected in the coming days

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday there would be no cease-fire in the coming days to stop fighting between his nation’s forces and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia.
“Quite a few days of fighting are still before us,” Olmert told a conference of local officials.

“We will stop the war when the (rocket) threat is removed…, our captive soldiers return home in peace, and you are able to live in safety and security.”

“We are paying a very precious and almost unbearable price in terms of loss of life, major damage to public and private property and tranquility — and we’re not prepared to give up our right to live perfectly ordinary lives, which are not subject to terrorism and hate and fanaticism,” Olmert said.

Other developments on Monday pointed to a lengthening of the 20-day-old conflict.

The United Nations Security Council postponed indefinitely a meeting on setting up a new peacekeeping force for the area.

President Bush said Monday there could be no cease-fire until Hezbollah was reined in and international borders respected, reiterating the U.S. stance on the conflict.

Meanwhile Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station claimed Hezbollah missiles hit an Israeli warship. An Israeli security source said no Israeli vessel had been hit, according to Reuters news service.

Reuters also reported that Hezbollah said the attack was retaliation for Sunday’s bombing of Qana, Lebanon, that killed at least 54 civilians.

The airstrike — which killed many children and sparked international outrage — threatened to derail work toward a resolution in the 20-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

U.N. talks on hold

At the United Nations, a Security Council meeting on planning for a new peacekeeping force had been delayed “until there is more political clarity” on the path ahead in the Middle East conflict, Reuters news agency reported

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had called the meeting last Friday, but the world’s major powers have said no force can be put in place until fighting stops and Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah agree to its deployment, Reuters reported.

And Israel’s defense minister told the nation’s parliament it would increase military pressure against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Despite an agreement to stop airstrikes for 48 hours, Israel dropped bombs in southern Lebanon on Monday.

In its agreement, Israel had reserved the right to hit targets that it considered an immediate threat.

But the Israeli army said Monday’s strikes near the Lebanese village of Tayba were meant to protect ground forces operating in the border area and were not aimed at specific targets.

The Israeli military expressed regret that one of the strikes hit a Lebanese military vehicle outside Tyre, Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was unclear how many people were killed. Earlier, a senior Lebanese Interior Ministry official said the airstrike killed an aide to a Lebanese general and wounded three soldiers. The general survived the attack, the official said.

The IDF said it thought the car was carrying a senior Hezbollah militant involved in directing rocket fire on Israel.

Israeli troops enter village

Also Monday, Israeli troops entered the southern Lebanese village of Aita Al-Shaab, according to the IDF.

“There is an operation going on over there — this is the first time troops have been in this area,” an Israeli army spokesman told Reuters.

Hezbollah said its guerrillas were engaging the advancing force in fierce fighting, Reuters reported.

Earlier Monday, the IDF said its aircraft fired on open fields surrounding its ground forces in the Tayba area. Three Israeli soldiers in the area suffered minor injuries after Hezbollah fighters hit their tank with a missile, an Israeli army spokesman said.

Two Hezbollah rockets hit in an open area of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona on Monday, but no casualties were reported, Israeli police officials said. The firings marked the first Hezbollah rocket attacks into northern Israel from southern Lebanon in a day. Police officials said 134 Hezbollah rockets slammed into the Jewish state on Sunday, injuring 48.

The conflict began July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Bush, speaking in Florida on Monday, said Israel had the right to defend itself and called on Iran and Syria to stop aiding Hezbollah.

“Iran must end its financial support and supply of weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah,” Bush said. “Syria must end its support for terror and respect the sovereignty of Lebanon.”

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking earlier Monday, said she believed a resolution to the crisis could be reached this week.

In addition to its pledge to halt aerial bombardments, Israel said it would arrange with U.N. officials to allow 24 hours of safe passage for residents to flee southern Lebanon, an Israeli official said.

The United Nations on Monday sent relief supplies to Qana and Tyre, The Associated Press reported. U.N. officials told the AP that its convoys elsewhere in Lebanon are suspended because of the fragile security situation.