Middle Orient

‘This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation’ — Bush LONDON (AP) — British authorities said they averted “mass murder” in the skies by thwarting an alleged plot to blow up passenger planes …

BEIRUT — Hospitals were running out of food, fuel and other supplies in southern Lebanon on Thursday and aid groups said fighting and a ban on movement meant they could not reach thousands trapped in the area.

BEIRUT (AFP) — The medical relief organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) announced Thursday that it would defy an Israeli threat to bomb any vehicle moving south of Lebanon’s Litani River, an area that includes the port city of Tyre.

YAROUN — They move on foot by moonlight. They set up hilltop sniper nests and lookouts. They hit enemy forces at vulnerable points and then quietly retreat.

AMSTERDAM — Both Israel and Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon have been accused of war crimes during four weeks of conflict, but they are unlikely to go on trial anywhere but the court of public opinion.

BAGHDAD (AP) — About 1,500 people died violently last month in Baghdad — many shot execution-style by sectarian death squads, Iraqi officials said.

ISRAEL ON Wednesday expanded its ground offensive in Lebanon, and Hizbollah’s leader vowed to turn southern Lebanon into a graveyard for Israeli troops and unleash more rockets on the city of Haifa.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Four weeks into an offensive that has failed to stop Hizbollah rocket attacks, the Israeli military has changed a top commander of its Lebanon war effort in a blow to the pride of the Jewish state’s army.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Almost 2,000 bodies were taken to Baghdad’s morgue in July, the highest tally in five months of rising sectarian bloodshed which has forced the United States to boost troop levels in the capital to head off a civil war.

Jordan to treat Palestinians affected by suspect powder   AN ISRAELI AIR strike in Gaza City on Wednesday killed three people, including a five-year-old girl, and wounded two others, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.