BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 25 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's presence in the Middle East did not reduce the fierce fighting between Israel and Hezbollah raging in south Lebanon.
Amid fears of no success so far in Rice's mission to find a suitable settlement to the crisis, Israeli troops continued their advance inside Lebanese territory despite facing fierce resistance by Hezbollah fighters Tuesday, the 14th day of the confrontation sparked by Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.
Rice is in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and will go later today to the Palestinian territories to meet President Mahmoud Abbas as part of her mission to calm the fighting on Israel's two raging fronts: with Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north.
Lebanese security sources said fierce battles are taking place in the town of Bint Jbeil, the main Hezbollah bastion in south Lebanon, which Israel said it entered despite harsh resistance by the Iranian-backed Shiite fighters.
The sources said the Israelis landed an airborne unit on a strategic hill at Bint Jbeil's entrance and sent in tanks and armored carriers.
But Hezbollah issued a statement denying Israeli claims and stressing that battles are taking place outside and around the town.
In Israel, an army spokesman claimed that only 100 Hezbollah fighters are battling the Israelis inside the deserted town which he said has already been partly seized by Israel.
The spokesman said the army will continue its incursion towards the region of Tyre to stop the firing of long-range rockets that reach the Israeli port city of Haifa. The operation in Bint Jbeil, on the other hand, is aimed at quelling destroying short-range rockets hitting north Israel.
In the meantime, Lebanon is incurring economic losses which the association of Lebanese industrialists estimated at more than $100 million, and that sum only on factories targeted by Israel air strikes.
