by Jihad Siqlawi 48 minutes ago
AITA SHAAB, Lebanon (AFP) - Israel has invaded southern Lebanon in a ground and air assault to retrieve two soldiers snatched by Hezbollah, the first such assault into the country since a 2000 pullout.
The capture, in an attack on an army outpost on the volatile Lebanese border, opened a new front in the Middle East after the capture of another Israeli soldier by Palestinians two weeks ago plunged the region into chaos.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the abduction amounted to an act of war, held the government in Beirut fully responsible, and vowed no negotiations, as aircraft and artillery pounded Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah, whose Shiite militia was instrumental in forcing Israeli troops out of Lebanon six years ago and which is sponsored by Israel's arch-foes Syria and Iran, demanded the release of Arab prisoners in exchange for the soldiers.
The morning raid and abduction came amid intense cross-border exchanges in which at least four civilians were wounded in northern Israel and another four in south Lebanon, including a correspondent of Hezbollah television.
Two Lebanese civilians were later killed and five others wounded as the Israelis mounted their incursion, Lebanese police said.
"The Lebanese government is responsible. Lebanon will pay the price," Olmert warned at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who had hoped his visit would ease already sky- high tensions in the region.
"This morning's events are not a terror attack but the action of a sovereign state which attacked Israel without any reason," he added.
"Israel will react in a decisive way so that those responsible for the attack will pay a high and painful price," vowed the premier, who is facing his second crisis over captive servicemen in barely a fortnight.
Clearing his schedule, Olmert has called an emergency cabinet meeting for 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) as the military called up a rapid-reaction division of 6,000 troops, headed for Israel's northern border.
Hezbollah earlier announced that its military wing had captured the two soldiers in a bid to extract the release of prisoners and detainees.
"To fulfil a promise to free the prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance captured at 9:05 am (0605 GMT) two Israeli soldiers at the borders with occupied Palestine," Hezbollah said.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz confirmed the soldiers were captured in an operation along Israel's northern border.
The Shiite militant group, which sits in the Lebanese government and whose armed wing controls the south of the country, said the two soldiers "were moved to a safe place".
As soon as news of the capture was announced, celebratory gunfire erupted across Beirut's southern suburbs -- a Hezbollah stronghold. Some residents were also seen distributing sweets to passing motorists.
Israeli troops swiftly crossed the border in the first ground incursion since the Jewish state ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000.
Aircraft were waging aerial attacks as ground and naval artillery pounded Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, a military spokesman said.
Lebanese police said Israeli warplanes flew at low and medium altitude over southern Lebanon and pounded several Hezbollah positions as well as a bridge in the western sector of the area.
Israel had been on high alert for possible retaliation from Hezbollah following its threats to kill Hamas militants based in Damascus and since it sent warplanes over a Syrian presidential palace late last month.
"We will take Lebanon 20 years back," Israel's army chief of staff Dan Halutz was quoted as saying by the private Channel 10 television.
"We must stop the restraint and the diplomatic dialogue and move to a serious military move against anyone who is linked and sends these people," said Avigdor Yitzhaki, the leader of Israel's coalition bloc in parliament.
The return of Israeli troops to the Gaza Strip last week has already evoked painful memories of the army's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon where soldiers became bogged down in a deadly quagmire before finally leaving.
Wednesday's flare-up on the northern border came shortly after Israeli tanks and troops pushed a new offensive in the central Gaza Strip, killing nine members of the same family in an air strike on a house owned by a Hamas leader.
The fresh crisis developed even as the situation continued to deteriorate in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian militants are still holding Gilad Shalit, an 19-year-old Israeli corporal seized on June 25.
His capture, which was claimed by three groups including the armed wing of the governing Hamas, sparked the worst crisis in the region since the Islamist movement had its cabinet sworn in last March.
In an interview, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said his mediation efforts for Shalit's release had been sabotaged by an unnamed party.
In the remarks published Wednesday, Murabak said he had reached a deal with Israel for "a large number of prisoners" to be released but added that Hamas came under fresh pressure and the mediation was scuppered.
Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah have repeatedly urged Hamas not to release the Israeli soldier, arguing that his capture was the best bargaining chip for the release of Palestinian and Arab prisoners.
The three groups detaining Shalit in the Gaza Strip have demanded the release of 1,000 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and other prisoners.
Israel has so far refused to negotiate and launched a large-scale operation against the Gaza Strip, killing more than 60 Palestinians in the past 10 days and pounding the territory's infrastructure.