AL QUDS, Aug 7: Israel vowed on Monday to step up its offensive in Lebanon after suffering its deadliest day since launching the war on Hezbollah almost four weeks ago, as international talks on a ceasefire stalled.

Military commanders met Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to seek the green light to widen the ground offensive in Hezbollah’s stronghold of southern Lebanon, army radio reported, after three civilians and 12 soldiers were killed in rocket attacks on Sunday.

In a possible sign of expanding military operations, the Israeli army warned Lebanese who live south of the Litani River not to go outdoors after 10:00pm (1200 midnight PST).

The top military brass vowed to plough on with Israel’s 27-day offensive against the fundamentalist Shia militia as ceasefire talks at the United Nations faltered.

“We are continuing operations to clean up southern Lebanon and to meet the goals we have set ourselves, regardless of any possible ceasefire,” said the commander of Israel’s northern military region, General Alon Friedman.

His comments were echoed by Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, who said the “number one objective is to stop the rocket fire.”

“(The army) has not been given any time limit to achieve this goal,” he said, warning that operations will continue “with no regards to a ceasefire as long as the objective is not achieved.”

Israel has sent more and more ground forces into southern Lebanon in an effort to prevent Hezbollah from firing short-range rockets, small and mobile weapons that cannot be detected from the air and that have been responsible for the majority of the war’s Israeli civilian casualties.

“We are at a crucial stage of the war,” Defense Minister Amir Peretz told parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee. “The most important thing is to push the rockets and rocket launchers beyond the Litani.”

Peretz was also quoted as saying he had ordered the military to “eliminate rocket launchers and missiles wherever they are if the diplomatic process does not produce results.”

Minister without portfolio Eitan Cabel told army radio that “an occupation of a security zone in south Lebanon is needed for two to three weeks, followed by a cleaning up of the sector to considerably reduce the firing of short-range rockets.”

The Israeli army says that two divisions, or up to 20,000 troops, are currently deployed up to 10 kilometers (six miles) inside southern Lebanon, and observers warn that they could advance further.

“It’s a fact that Israel has not been able to prevent the short-range rockets,” reserve general Uzi Dayan, former chief of Israel’s national security council, told AFP.

“Thus the sole solution is to penetrate further into Lebanon, at least 30 kilometers, to solve the problem of Katyusha launchers in this area,” he said.—AFP