Hizbollah top man pledges 'war'
published: Saturday | July 15, 2006

BEIRUT (Reuters):

HIZBOLLAH'S CHIEF pledged open war on Israel after it bombed his Beirut home yesterday in a dramatic expansion of an assault in Lebanon launched after Hizbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.

"You wanted open war. We are going to (wage) open war," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a telephone, message broadcast live on Hizbollah television after the attack.

He said an Israeli navy ship was ablaze off the coast of Beirut. Lebanese security sources said two rockets had hit it.A Lebanese security source said the warship, which had bombed Lebanon earlier in the day, suffered considerable damage and Al Jazeera television reported four Israeli troops were missing at sea.