Jul 15, 2006 14:19
Israel tells villagers to flee, and then massacres them while they're doing so...
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At least 12 Lebanese villagers, including women and children, were killed on Saturday in an Israeli air strike on vehicles fleeing a village in southern Lebanon, a witness said.
The convoy was leaving the border village of Marwahin when it was attacked.
An Associated Press photographer said he counted 12 bodies in two cars that were destroyed by the attack shortly after midday (0900GMT).
An adviser to Lebanon's health minister put the toll at about 15. Hasan Hutait told Aljazeera that two cars had been directly hit by Israeli fire.
The deaths brought the toll in Israel's offensive in Lebanon to 79, Hutait said, adding that a total of 250 have been wounded.
Hours earlier, Israeli forces across the border told villagers by loudspeaker to leave the area or else the village would be destroyed. They did not give a reason for the ultimatum.
"Israeli forces threatened us on Saturday at 8 am to destroy our town if we do not evacuate it," Akram Ghannam, a resident of Marwahin, told Aljazeera on Saturday.