Middle Orient

WASHINGTON — A US-backed diplomatic pact to end more than a month of war between Israel and Islamist fighters in Lebanon may stop the worst of the killing and retire the daily television images of burning buildings and suffocated children.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Three back-to-back explosions killed 47 people and wounded more than 70 Sunday night in a mostly Shiite neighbourhood in southern Baghdad, police said.

GENEVA (AFP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross on Sunday slammed the ongoing heavy civilian casualties in the conflict in Lebanon as “unacceptable”.

Jordan takes first step among Arabs to post ambassador BAGHDAD (Agencies) — Security forces were on high alert Saturday as hundreds of thousands of Shiite devotees marched into Baghdad to mark the death of a revered imam, a year after a stampede killed nearly 1,000 pilgrims.

GENEVA (AP) — Most Lebanese refugees have left Syria for home, shifting aid workers’ focus to providing clean water, food, shelter materials and other essentials to help them re-establish their lives, UN officials said.

BAALBEK — At a roundabout facing the Roman ruins of Baalbek, 10-year-old Hassan Ali, a member of Hizbollah’s Al Mahdi Scouts youth group, distributes sweets to drivers entering the town.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to UN member states to provide desperately needed UN peacekeeping troops for Lebanon and assured them the UN force would not “wage war” on Israel, Lebanon, or Hizbollah fighters.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Saturday that nations with military ties to Israel must not be part of the UN peacekeeping force that will police a truce along Lebanon-Israel border.

MARJAYOUN (AFP) — “God bless them, they are coming to protect us,” said south Lebanon resident Mohammed as government troops proudly waving national flags took up position in the Hizbollah stronghold in the first such operation in decades.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Car bombs killed 10 people in Baghdad on Thursday as violence persisted in the capital despite the US-led security crackdown. Two more American soldiers were killed in combat, the US command said.