Arab leaders fear rise of Hezbollah.,Protesters in the Arab world have shown support for Hezbollah, Hezbollah is riding a wave of popularity on the Arab street. Not since it played a role in forcing Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000 has it enjoyed such adulation.

Its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is enjoying something akin to a personality cult.

At a time when Arab governments are seen as largely powerless to influence events, Hezbollah is seen as taking on the Israelis - and behind the Israelis, the American superpower.

This has put Arab leaders - in particular those allied to the United States - in a difficult quandary.

At the start of this crisis the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan did not hide their view that Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers was "reckless adventurism".

This was unusual enough, but they also openly directed their displeasure at the group's backers, Syria and Iran.

Their stance pleased the Bush administration but was roundly criticised at home.

They were seen as siding with the Israelis against the new champions of the Palestinian cause.

Now there is a distinct shift.

Washington's Arab friends are pressing urgently for an immediate ceasefire.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has warned darkly of the danger of a wider regional war.

Saudi television this week organised a day-long appeal - or "telethon" - which raised some $29 million (£15.55 million) for Lebanon.


Protestors in the Arab world have shown support for Hezbollah

The Saudi media made much of the fact that the king and the crown prince made handsome personal donations.

In addition the Saudi state has given $1.5 billion (£800 million) to support the Lebanese pound and help rebuild the shattered country.

It is not that these rulers have changed their minds.

They fear the growing influence of Iran and Hezbollah.

They believe the regional balance of power is shifting in Iran's favour.

They think Iran and Hezbollah are trying to hijack the Palestinian cause.

Some Saudi religious figures have gone much further. For them the issue is not so much political as sectarian.

One well-known sheikh, Abdullah bin Jabreen, has issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, declaring it illegal for Muslims to join, support or even pray for Hezbollah.

This reflects the view of conservatives in the Saudi religious establishment that the Shia are not proper Muslims and are not to be trusted.

Joining the bandwagon

But the critics of Hezbollah find themselves in the minority.


Al-Qaeda does not want to be upstaged

The predominant view in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world is overwhelmingly supportive of Hezbollah.

For most people, the Palestinian cause transcends sectarian differences.

Even al-Qaeda, no friend of the Shia, has felt obliged to speak out.

The group's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has issued a video saying no Muslim can stay silent in the face of events in Lebanon.

A senior Hezbollah official said Tuesday the guerrillas did not expect Israel to react with an all-out offensive after the capture of two soldiers, the first acknowledgment by the group that it had miscalculated the consequences of the raid two weeks ago.

Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of the Hezbollah's political arm, also told The Associated Press in an interview that the Shiite militant group will not lay down arms.

In separate remarks early Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah defiantly vowed his fighters would begin firing rockets deeper into Israel, beyond the northern port of Haifa.

"The truth is — let me say this clearly — we didn't even expect (this) response ... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," said Komati.

He said Hezbollah had expected "the usual, limited response" from Israel after the two soldiers were seized by guerrillas on Israel's side of the border on July 12.

In the past, he said, Israeli responses to Hezbollah actions included sending commandos into Lebanon, seizing Hezbollah officials and briefly targeting specific strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Komati said his group had anticipated negotiations to swap the Israeli soldiers for three Lebanese held in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it has in past prisoner exchanges.

In a speech broadcast on Hezbollah's al-Manar television, Nasrallah urged his people to be patient, apparently counting on growing international anger at the Israeli offensive in which hundreds of Lebanese have died.

"Our steadfastness will change the regional and international reality around us. The enemy won't have a lot of time, no matter what cover the American administration is providing it," Nasrallah said.

He said the group would enter a new stage in the fighting, vowing "our attacks will not remain limited to Haifa." In the last two weeks, Hezbollah has rained hundreds of rockets on northern Israel, reaching targets farther south than in any previous attacks. The group has repeatedly hit the city of Haifa, the third largest in Israel.

Komati said Hezbollah captured the Israeli soldiers from a military area, but charged that Israelis had taken Hezbollah leaders from their homes at night.

"The response is unjustified," Komati said. He claimed the Israeli offensive was planned in advance, and Israel was only "waiting for the right time" to carry it out, a claim repeated by Nasrallah.

Asked about reports that Hezbollah has been firing Iranian-made missiles on Israel, Komati said: "We don't deny nor confirm. We believe where the weapons come from is irrelevant."

Hezbollah leaders previously have denied that Iran was supplying them with weapons.

Komati said Hezbollah has weapons made in various countries, including the United States, France, China and Russia.

"Some of our fighters carry M16s. So you think we buy them from America?" he asked.

Hezbollah is demanding an immediate end to Israeli attacks before agreeing to negotiate, Komati said, rejecting a plan proposed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to Beirut on Monday.

The plan calls for the deployment of international and Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah attacks on Israel before a cease-fire.

"No one can talk about politics while the fire rages, and killings occur," Komati said.

He was adamant about Hezbollah's refusal to disarm because of what he said was Israeli occupation of Lebanese land, the "threat of Israeli aggression" and the Lebanese held in Israeli jails.

New Israeli-Hezbollah fighting breaks out
A large fight between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas broke out Thursday evening on the Lebanese side of the border, the Israeli army said, adding that its troops suffered casualties but did not elaborate. Hezbollah's Al-Manar television said three Israeli soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in fighting.

The forces crossed the border as part of ongoing operations to push back Hezbollah guerrillas who have continued firing rockets into northern Israel despite more than a week of massive bombardment.

Israel, meanwhile, hinted at a full-scale invasion. It warned residents to flee a nearly 20-mile swath of south Lebanon along the border. Its warplanes also launched new airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, shortly after daybreak, followed by strikes in the guerrillas' heartland in the south and eastern Bekaa Valley.

The planes also bombed large parts of the south, from which Hezbollah guerrillas fired more rockets into Israel. On Wednesday, Israeli bombings killed as many as 70 people, according to Lebanese television, making it the deadliest day since the fighting began July 12.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council that "hostilities must stop" between Israel and Hezbollah. He also condemned Israel's "excessive use of force" in Lebanon.

"There are serious obstacles to reaching a cease-fire or even to diminishing the violence quickly," Annan said.

The fighting had triggered a humanitarian crisis, he added. The U.N. estimated that about a half-million have been displaced in Lebanon, with 130,000 fleeing to Syria and about 45,000 believed to be in need of assistance.

Russia sharply criticized Israel's onslaught, now in its ninth day, sparked when Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers. Moscow said Israel's actions have gone "far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation."

At least 306 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel's campaign began, according to Lebanese officials. At least 29 Israelis have been killed, including 14 soldiers.

About 40 U.S. Marines landed in Beirut to help Americans onto the USS Nashville, which will carry 1,200 evacuees bound for Cyprus in the second mass U.S. exodus from Lebanon. It was the first U.S. military deployment in Lebanon in 22 years.

Thousands of Europeans also fled on ships — continuing one of the largest evacuation operations since World War II. An estimated 13,000 foreign nationals have been evacuated.

More than 600 relatives of U.N. peacekeepers and other foreigners were evacuated by ship from the southern port of Tyre, a region that has been pounded for days by Israeli warplanes and gunboats.

Hezbollah guerrillas fired 25 rockets into Israel on Thursday. Although they caused no casualties, the continued rocket barrage raised the question of whether Israeli air power alone can suppress them.

The guerrillas have been fighting back hard on the ground, wounding three Israeli soldiers. An Israeli unit sent in to ambush Hezbollah guerrillas also had a fierce gunbattle with a cell of militants.

In another clash, just across the border from the Israeli town of Avivim, guerrillas fired a missile at an Israeli tank, seriously wounding a soldier. Hezbollah said its guerrillas destroyed two tanks trying to enter the Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras, across from Avivim.

Israel has mainly limited itself to attacks from the air and sea, reluctant to send in ground troops on terrain dominated by Hezbollah.

But an Israeli army spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of a full-scale invasion. Israel broadcast warnings Wednesday into south Lebanon, telling civilians to leave — a possible prelude to a larger ground operation.

In the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been fighting for three weeks after one of its soldiers was captured, Israeli forces killed three people and wounded six Thursday. Nine people — eight of them militants — were killed a day earlier.

Leaflets dropped Wednesday night warned that any trucks traveling in Lebanese towns south of the Litani River would be suspected of carrying weapons and rockets and could be targeted by Israeli forces.

A Hezbollah official said it was "fully ready" for an Israeli ground offensive, dismissing Israeli claims to have destroyed half the guerrillas' arsenal of missiles. Mahmoud Koumati, deputy leader of Hezbollah's political bureau, told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. the group has enough missiles to fight Israel for "long months."

The Lebanese government is under international pressure to deploy troops in the south to rein in Hezbollah — but even before the fighting, many considered it too weak to do so without deeply fracturing the country.

On Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora appealed for a cease-fire, saying Lebanon "has been torn to shreds."

Dallal said Israel had hit "1,000 targets in the last eight days — 20 percent were missile-launching sites and the rest were control and command centers, missiles and so forth."

Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan insisted the Israeli army never targets civilians but has no way of knowing if they are in an area it is striking. "Civilians might be in the area because Hezbollah is operating from civilian territory," .

He said that Hezbollah has fired more than 1,100 rockets at civilian areas in Israel since the fighting began and that 12 percent — or about 750,000 people — of Israel's population lives in areas that can be targeted by the guerrillas.

The Israeli military said aircraft dropped 23 tons of explosives on what it believed was a bunker for senior Hezbollah leaders in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Beirut between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Hezbollah said none of its members was hurt and denied a leadership bunker was in the area, saying a mosque under construction was hit. It has a headquarters compound in Bourj al-Barajneh that is off limits to Lebanese police and army, so security officials could not confirm the strike.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman told CNN his country would not comment about the attack until it is sure of all the facts. But he added, "I can assure you that we know exactly what we hit. ... This was no religious site. This was indeed the headquarters of the Hezbollah leadership."

On Thursday, Israeli jets struck houses believed used by Hezbollah officials in the town of Hermel in the western Bekaa Valley, wounding at least three.

Israeli warplanes also destroyed a five-story residential and commercial building that reportedly once held a Hezbollah office in the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold, witnesses said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Two civilians were killed late Wednesday in strikes on bridges in Lebanon's far north, near Tripoli, the National News Agency said.

Israeli jets also raided a detention center in the southern town of Khiam Thursday, witnesses and local TV said. The notorious Khiam prison, formerly run by Israel's Lebanese militia allies during its occupation, was destroyed, they said.

International pressure mounted on Israel and the United States to agree to a cease-fire.

The destruction and rising death toll deepened a rift between the U.S. and Europe. The Bush administration is giving Israel a tacit green light to take the time it needs to neutralize Hezbollah, but the Europeans fear mounting civilian casualties will play into the hands of militants and weaken Lebanon's democratically elected government.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour criticized the rising toll, saying the shelling was invariably killing innocent civilians.

"International law demands accountability," she said in Geneva. "The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control."

Egyptian authorities believe that the first tomb uncovered in the Valley of the Kings in more than 80 years may have once contained the remains of Queen Kiya, the mother of King Tutankhamun.


Zawi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, says the tomb was likely raided and any mummies stolen.

The tomb -- located less than 50 feet from Tutankhamun's -- contained seven sarcophagi but no mummies. Instead, archaeologists say they have found artifacts that date back more than 3,000 years ago to the time of the boy king.

In the final coffin to be unsealed, they uncovered garlands made of flowers, papyrus and bits of gold that they believe were meant to protect the soul in the afterlife.

The discovery of the tomb in the ancient royal burial ground was announced in February. Its excavation was funded and filmed by the Discovery Channel, which reveals the findings Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET in a show called King Tut's Mystery Tomb Opened.
More From USA Today


Zawi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, says the tomb was likely raided and any mummies stolen. Hawass believes the tomb was later used by ancient Egyptians to store materials they used to embalm the dead.

Hawass says historical evidence indicates that Tutankhamun's mother died giving birth to him and that there was not enough time to build her an elaborate tomb. Tutankhamun took the throne at the age of 8 or 9 more than 3,300 years ago. Before he died in his late teens, he asked to be buried near his mother, Hawass says.

Pottery and seals found in the tomb were similar to those found in King Tut's tomb. Faces painted on coffins in both tombs closely resemble each other as well, Hawass says.

But Egyptologist Otto Schaden of the University of Memphis, who is leading the archaeological team, says there is not enough evidence to determine whose tomb it was.

"The coffin has absolutely no royal insignia, so it's very unlikely it belongs to a queen," Schaden says. "As head of the antiquities, (Hawass is) in a position to draw whatever conclusions he wishes. I can't say he's wrong because I can't say whose tomb it was meant to be."

As archaeologists continue to examine the final coffin's fragile contents, they hope to find hieroglyphics that give more decisive evidence of the tomb's former inhabitant. Several jars filled with pottery also remain unopened.

Experts have expressed the belief that the Valley of Kings has already yielded its major archaeological treasures. But Discovery Channel producer Anthony Geffin says, "Who knows? There could be some amazing finds yet to come."

This new tomb discovery "reopens the book on the Valley of the Kings when we all thought it was closed,.



Egyptian authorities believe that the first tomb uncovered in the Valley of the Kings in more than 80 years may have once contained the remains of Queen Kiya, the mother of King Tutankhamun.


Zawi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, says the tomb was likely raided and any mummies stolen.

The tomb -- located less than 50 feet from Tutankhamun's -- contained seven sarcophagi but no mummies. Instead, archaeologists say they have found artifacts that date back more than 3,000 years ago to the time of the boy king.

In the final coffin to be unsealed, they uncovered garlands made of flowers, papyrus and bits of gold that they believe were meant to protect the soul in the afterlife.

The discovery of the tomb in the ancient royal burial ground was announced in February. Its excavation was funded and filmed by the Discovery Channel, which reveals the findings Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET in a show called King Tut's Mystery Tomb Opened.

Zawi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, says the tomb was likely raided and any mummies stolen. Hawass believes the tomb was later used by ancient Egyptians to store materials they used to embalm the dead.

Hawass says historical evidence indicates that Tutankhamun's mother died giving birth to him and that there was not enough time to build her an elaborate tomb. Tutankhamun took the throne at the age of 8 or 9 more than 3,300 years ago. Before he died in his late teens, he asked to be buried near his mother, Hawass says.

Pottery and seals found in the tomb were similar to those found in King Tut's tomb. Faces painted on coffins in both tombs closely resemble each other as well, Hawass says.

But Egyptologist Otto Schaden of the University of Memphis, who is leading the archaeological team, says there is not enough evidence to determine whose tomb it was.

"The coffin has absolutely no royal insignia, so it's very unlikely it belongs to a queen," Schaden says. "As head of the antiquities, (Hawass is) in a position to draw whatever conclusions he wishes. I can't say he's wrong because I can't say whose tomb it was meant to be."

As archaeologists continue to examine the final coffin's fragile contents, they hope to find hieroglyphics that give more decisive evidence of the tomb's former inhabitant. Several jars filled with pottery also remain unopened.

Experts have expressed the belief that the Valley of Kings has already yielded its major archaeological treasures. But Discovery Channel producer Anthony Geffin says, "Who knows? There could be some amazing finds yet to come."

This new tomb discovery "reopens the book on the Valley of the Kings when we all thought it was closed,".