Israel attacks Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel widened its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas today, targeting Beirut's international airport and blasting southern Lebanon for a second day, police and airport officials said.

Twenty-two civilians were reported killed in the south, local media said.

Warplanes struck the runways of the country's only international airport early today during Israel's ongoing air and sea assault against Lebanon, which begun a day earlier after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers. The airport was later closed, forcing flights to be diverted to nearby Cyprus, officials said.

Israel's Army Radio reported the object of the attack was to shut down air traffic in and out of the Lebanese capital. The airport is located in Beirut's southern suburbs, which are controlled by Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft and artillery continued attacking targets in southern Lebanon overnight, police reported. Leading TV station LBC said at least 22 civilians were killed in the attacks, including a family of 12 in the village of Dweir.

Israeli medics also reported today that an Israeli woman was killed when a Hezbollah rocket hit her home in a northern border town. The Israeli military said it was checking the report.

Israel bombed and shelled southern Lebanon and sent ground troops over the border for the first time in six years Wednesday after the two soldiers were captured. The fighting killed eight Israeli soldiers and three Lebanese.

Hezbollah's brazen cross-border raid opened a second front for the Israeli army. The Israeli army is now fighting Islamic militants in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, where it is looking for another soldier who was captured more than two weeks ago by Hamas-linked militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the Hezbollah raid an "act of war" by Lebanon and threatened "very, very, very painful" retaliation. The Cabinet, meeting in the wake of the military's highest daily death toll in four years, decided to continue the army operation and call on the international community to disarm Hezbollah, according to participants.

Residents of northern Israeli towns were ordered to seek cover in underground bomb shelters as Hezbollah, an anti-Israel guerrilla group that essentially runs southern Lebanon, launched rockets across the border throughout Wednesday.