Israel pounds Lebanon

Raids destroyed two army posts on the northern Lebanese coast, killing at least six Lebanese soldiers, and damaged the homes of Hizbollah officials in eastern Lebanon, killing 11 people in over 60 strikes on the sixth day of violence.

Four more people died in strikes south of Beirut. Several thunderous blasts echoed over the capital and black smoke rose from a blazing fuel storage depot in the Christian suburb of Dora. Civilian installations, petrol stations and factories elsewhere were also hit, security sources said.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian gunmen ambushed a group of Israeli troops, killing one and wounding at least two in the old city of Nablus, witnesses and military sources said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Security Council members will start hammering out a detailed agreement on deploying a multilateral security force to Lebanon.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the force would be essential to stop Hizbollah rocket attacks and give Israel a reason to halt its devastating strikes which have wrecked roads, bridges and power plants across Lebanon.

But Israel said it was too soon to talk of deploying the force. "We're at the stage where we want to be sure that Hizbollah is not deployed at our northern border," government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

/REUTERS/