Mideast Crisis: Hezbollah Fires New Rocket and Rice Back to Mideast

July 28, 2006 -- MIDEAST CRISIS-DAY 17

Hezbollah Rocket Hits Israeli Hospital

Israeli warplanes and artillery attacks Friday hit Hezbollah positions and crushed houses and roads in southern Lebanon, killing up to 12 people. Hezbollah said it fired a new kind of rocket, which landed deeper inside Israel than hundreds of other strikes in 17 days of fighting. (AP)

Rice to Return to Mideast to Work on Truce

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will return to the Middle East this weekend to work with others on trying to bring an end to the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting. (AP)

U.N. Observers Leave Israel-Lebanon Border

The United Nations has decided to remove unarmed observers from their posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said Friday. (AP)

Israeli Bombs Kill 13 in Lebanon

Intense Israeli bombardment killed 13 people in Lebanon on Friday, while U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would return to the region only when the time was right for a lasting solution to the crisis. (Reuters)

US 'Outrage' Over Israeli Claims

The US state department has dismissed as "outrageous" a suggestion by Israel that it has been authorized by the world to continue bombing Lebanon. (BBC)

Arab Opinion Turns to Support Hezbollah

At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight. (New York Times)

Iranian Students Volunteer to Join the Fighting in Lebanon and Palestine

The following are excerpts from a news report on Iranian volunteers for Lebanon, which aired on Al-Alam TV on July 26, 2006. (MEMRI)

MIDEAST CRISIS-ANALYSIS & OPINION

Israel, Lebanon: Hezbollah's Increased Range

Five artillery rockets launched from Lebanon on July 28 hit the northern Israeli town of Afula. The town is about seven miles south of Nazareth -- which had been the farthest a Hezbollah rocket had reached into Israel until the July 28 strikes. (Stratfor)

Only Constructive Negotiations Can Bring about a Ceasefire

By Raghida Dergham

Hezbollah can force Israel into implementing an immediate ceasefire if Hassan Nasrallah makes a strategic decision for the sake of Lebanon and declares that he is ready to hand over Hezbollah's weapons to the Lebanese army and accepts the authority of the State over all Lebanon. (Al Hayat)

10 Ways to (Maybe) End Conflict between Israel and Lebanon

ABC News asked a few Middle East analysts about their thoughts on possible solutions to the current conflict between Israel and Lebanon. (ABC News)

A Time To Act

By Warren Christopher

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's just-concluded trip to Lebanon, Israel and Rome was an exercise in grace, bravery and, to my regret, wrongly focused diplomacy. Especially disappointing is the fact that she resisted all suggestions that the first order of business should be negotiation of an immediate cease-fire between the warring parties.(Washington Post)

Christians Fleeing Lebanon Denounce Hezbollah

The refugees from southern Lebanon spilled out of packed cars into the dark street here Thursday evening, gulping bottles of water and squinting in the glare of the headlights to find family members and friends. Many had not eaten in days. Most had not had clean drinking water for some time. There were wounded swathed in makeshift dressings, and a baby just 16 days old. (New York Times)

ISRAEL/PALESTINE

Israeli Troops Pull Out of Northern Gaza

Israeli troops withdrew from northern Gaza early Friday after a bloody two-day sweep that killed 29 Palestinians, the deadliest violence since Israel's incursion began more than a month ago. (AP)

IRAQ NEWS

Bomb near Baghdad Mosque Kills 4 People

A bomb planted between a Sunni mosque and a youth center exploded during Friday prayers, killing four people and wounding another nine, police said. In other violence, gunmen in Tikrit killed two civilians who were employed by U.S. troops, while a U.S. Marine was killed in action in western Iraq, officials said. (AP)

Violence in Baghdad as More Troops Head for City

Just two days after Iraq's prime minister stood at the White House with President Bush as he announced the redeployment of thousands of American troops to Baghdad, a horrific attack there demonstrated just how difficult it is to make the capital city secure. (ABC News)

Insurgent Snipers Sent After Troops

Iraqi insurgents are teaching recruits sophisticated sniper techniques for targeting U.S. troops that include singling out engineers, medics and chaplains, according to training material obtained by U.S. military intelligence. (USA Today)

U.S.

U.N. Body Criticises U.S. on Rights

The US should immediately shut all secret detention facilities used in its campaign against terror groups, the UN Human Rights Committee has said. (BBC)

SOMALIA

Somali Minister Assassinated Outside Mosque

Gunmen shot dead a Somali minister outside a mosque on Friday at the fragile interim government's provincial base Baidoa in what one official called an "organized assassination." (Reuters)

NORTH KOREA MISSILES

North Korea Strikes Defiant Tone on Talks

North Korea on Friday spurned appeals to join talks on its nuclear and missile programs, saying the United States should drop financial sanctions before any negotiations occur. A U.S. envoy said the communist nation was sinking deeper into isolation. (AP)

South Korea Launches Satellite that Can Spy on North

South Korea sent a satellite into space on Friday primarily for geographical surveys but also for possibly spying on North Korea, which raised regional security concerns by launching missiles earlier this month. (Reuters)

PAKISTAN

Bomb Blast Wounds 19 in Pakistan

A bomb blast outside a bank wounded at least 19 people in Quetta, capital of Pakistan's troubled southwest province of Baluchistan, police and doctors said. (Reuters)

INDIA TRAIN BOMBINGS

Bali Bombers to Appeal Execution

Three men convicted over the 2002 Bali bombings are to appeal against their death sentences, a defense lawyer said. (BBC)

Police Arrest Brothers in Mumbai Blast Case

Two Muslim brothers have been arrested in connection with this month's Mumbai train bombings, taking the number of people in custody to eight, police said on Friday. (Reuters)

India Police Detail Role of Militants in Attacks

A Pakistani terrorist group that the Indian police suspect had a role in the July 11 bombings in Mumbai had been operating a group here at the time of the attacks, while its members took orders and training from militants in Pakistan, a senior Indian police investigator said Friday. (International Herald Tribune)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Endgame in Iraq? A Six-Month Equation

By Jeffrey Shaffer

Here's an Iraq war math problem: What do you get by adding "timetable for pulling our troops out" to "staying as long as it takes?" To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how anyone would make such a calculation. But if you guessed the answer is six months, you'd be in agreement with a number of high-ranking officials. (Christian Science Monitor)

The Challenges of Protecting High-Value Targets in a Crowd

Malaysia's influential former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed was sprayed July 28 with a chemical agent that probably will turn out to be pepper spray while greeting a crowd at an airport. Mahathir's security detail should have been more alert. Adequately protecting a high-value target in a crowd has proven impossible in several noteworthy instances in the past. (Stratfor)

The Insider Daily Investigative Report (DIR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to investigative news, including international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DIR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham, Hoda Osman and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.