Ukraine jets pound rebels after deadly missile attack

By Richard Balmforth and Natalia Zinets

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian war planes bombarded separatists along a broad front on Saturday, inflicting huge losses, Kiev said, after President Petro Poroshenko said "scores and hundreds" would be made to pay for a deadly missile attack on Ukrainian forces.

In exchanges marking a sharp escalation in the three-month conflict, jets struck at the "epicenter" of the battle against rebels near the border with Russia, a military spokesman said.

The planes targeted positions from where separatists, using high-powered Grad missiles, bombarded an army motorized brigade on Friday, killing 23 servicemen.

Warplanes also struck at targets near Donetsk, the east's main town where rebels have dug in, destroying a powerful fighter base near Dzerzhinsk, Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the "anti-terrorist operation" said.

"According to preliminary assessment, Ukrainian pilots ... killed about 500 (rebel) fighters and damaged two armored transporters," Lysenko told journalists.

In an earlier air attack on a base near Perevalsk, north of Donetsk, two tanks, 10 armored vehicles and "about 500" rebel fighters were destroyed, he said.

Rebel representatives, quoted by Russian news agencies, denied they suffered big losses and said the Ukrainians were using outdated intelligence on where separatist forces were deployed.

"There were no volunteers (rebels) where the Ukrainian aviation was active yesterday," said a spokeswoman for the Luhansk-based separatists, referring to the Peravalsk attack.

Earlier, the border guard service said jet fighters were scrambled to strike at the pro-Russian separatists after they resumed missile attacks on government forces deployed near the frontier with Russia, south-east of the city of Luhansk.

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An engine of Grad missile system is seen in a destroyed flat after shelling in Maryinka village outs …

In the military action, which began on Friday evening and continued well into Saturday, five Ukrainian servicemen were killed, Lysenko said. There were 16 overflights by Ukrainian fighter jets in all, he said.

The surge in violence on Ukraine's border with Russia, south east of Luhansk which is controlled by separatists, sparked fresh Ukrainian accusations against Russia of involvement in the border fighting.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry demanded Russia stop supporting armed groups in its eastern region, and end "provocations" on the border.

"The Russian side cynically disregards the fact that Ukrainian servicemen and peaceful civilians are being killed at the hands of terrorists whom it is supporting," the Foreign Ministry said.

"But, on the other hand Russian border guards complained in a letter about Russian household pets being killed by a supposed Ukrainian artillery shell, 500 meters (yards) from the border."

Rebels had also carried out mortar and missile bombardment of army checkpoints at Dyakove and Nyzhnoderevechka near Luhansk, the "anti-terrorist operation" said.

Journalists based in Donetsk said Ukrainian forces shelled Maryinka, a suburb, on Friday night and apartment blocks bore traces of fire on Saturday.

Igor Strelkov, separatist commander in Donetsk, said his men had headed off a plan to move fighters and armor into the area. Subsequent Ukrainian shelling had killed 30 civilians and the number of casualties could rise, he said.

Vladyslav Seleznyov, main spokesman for the "anti-terrorist operation", said the violence there had been caused by rebels out to discredit the Ukrainian armed forces.

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Ukrainian army soldier from battalion "Aydar" guards local residents as they leave the vil …

Poroshenko, whose forces recently seemed to be prevailing over the rebels, vowed on Friday to "find and destroy" rebels responsible for the missile attack at Zelenopillya, which also wounded nearly 100 and was one of the deadliest yet against government forces.

NEW SENSE OF URGENCY

The increasing violence will bring a new sense of urgency to diplomatic attempts to end the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

After a pro-Western revolt in Kiev ousted a Moscow-backed president in February, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and pro-Russian separatists seized strategic buildings in towns in the Russian-speaking east, setting up "people's republics" and declaring they wanted to join Russia.

More than 200 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed since then, and hundreds of civilians and rebels have also died.

The United States and the European Union have brought in limited sanctions against Russian businesses amid Ukrainian allegations that Moscow has fanned the conflict and turned a blind eye to military equipment and Russian fighters crossing the border.

On Saturday, the EU targeted 11 Ukrainian separatist leaders with travel bans and asset freezes, swerving away from fresh sanctions on Russian business to avoid antagonizing its main energy supplier. [ID:nL6N0PN06J]

The rebels' missile strike on Friday at a motorized brigade was against part of a contingent of troops sent to the area specifically to try to block military equipment and guns being brought in from Russia to help the rebels.

Rebel fighters said Ukrainian fighter planes had also carried out air strikes on Saturday in the eastern town of Horlivka. "There were a series of powerful explosions. Details are being clarified," a separatist representative, Konstantin Knyrik, was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.

EYES ON CONTACT GROUP

Friday's military setback at Zelenopillya took the gloss off the government's recapture of the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk last weekend.

The Ukrainian military, following the Slaviansk victory, says it has readied a plan to oust the rebels now from Donetsk, a city of 900,000 people where separatist forces are dug in.

Poroshenko has said the military plan will be aimed at protecting civilians there and had appeared to rule out the use of air strikes and artillery to crush the rebels.

Poroshenko, who was also urged by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to use a sense of proportion in actions against the separatists, had further talks on Friday with Donetsk mayor Aleksander Lukyanchenko on the issue.

Western allies and Russia are pressing for a new meeting of the 'contact group' involving separatist leaders to try to negotiate an end to the crisis.

Poroshenko says he has proposed various venues for the talks but has said there will be no repeat of a 10-day unilateral ceasefire by government forces which lapsed on June 30.

The Ukrainian government says that ceasefire was repeatedly violated by the rebels and that more than 20 Ukrainian servicemen were killed while it was in force.

(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by John Stonestreet and Sophie Hares)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel widened its air assault against the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers on Saturday, hitting a mosque, Hamas-affiliated charities and an Islamic home for the disabled, as Palestinians said the death toll from the five-day offensive rose to 135.

While Israel vowed to press forward with its 5-day-old campaign, it found itself facing growing international calls to stop. In New York, the U.N. Security Council unanimously called for a cease-fire, while Britain's foreign minister said he would be discussing cease-fire efforts with his American, French and German counterparts on Sunday.

The 15-member Security Council issued a press statement calling for a de-escalation, restoration of calm and a resumption of Mideast peace talks. The press statement, which is not legally binding but reflects international opinion, was the first response by the U.N.'s most powerful body.

An Israeli official said the goal of the operation is to restore quiet to Israel for a continuous period. "This goal will be achieved whether it is done militarily or diplomatically. Israel will consider any suggestion that will bring the accomplishment of this goal," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The military said it has struck more than 1,100 targets, including Hamas rocket launchers, command centers and weapon manufacturing and storage facilities, in a bid to stop relentless rocket fire coming Gaza. Officials in the territory said that two women were killed in the attack on the disabled center.

The central Gaza mosque was being used to conceal rockets like those militants have fired nearly 700 times toward Israel over the past five days, the military said. However, the strikes in the densely populated Gaza Strip show the challenge Israel faces as it considers a ground operation that could potentially pose further dangers to civilians.

Raw: Militants, Israelis Exchange Rocket FirePlay Video

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said Israeli strikes raised the death toll there to 135, with more than 920 wounded. Among the dead was a nephew of Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader, who was killed in an airstrike near his home, Hamas officials said.

Hamas militants have been hit hard. Though the exact breakdown of casualties remains unclear, dozens of the dead also have been civilians. Israel has also demolished dozens of homes it says are used by Hamas for military purposes.

"Am I a terrorist? Do I make rockets and artillery?" screamed Umm Omar, a woman in the southern town of Rafah whose home was destroyed in an airstrike. It was not immediately known why the building was targeted.

The offensive showed no signs of slowing down Saturday as Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said his country should ready itself for several more days of fighting.

"We have accumulated achievements as far as the price Hamas is paying and we are continuing to destroy significant targets of it and other terror organizations," Yaalon said after a meeting with top security officials. "We will continue to punish it until quiet and security returns to southern Israel and the rest of the country."

Raw: Airstrike Creates Chaos on Gaza StreetsPlay Video

Hamas said it hoped the mosque attack would galvanize support for it in the Muslim world.

"(It) shows how barbaric this enemy is and how much it is hostile to Islam," said Husam Badran, a Hamas spokesman in Doha, Qatar. "This terrorism gives us the right to broaden our response to deter this occupier."

The Israeli military released an aerial photo of the mosque it hit, saying Hamas hid rockets in it right next to another religious site and civilian homes. It said Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Gaza militant groups use religious sites to conceal weapons and establish underground tunnel networks, deliberately endangering civilians.

Critics say such allegations are too sweeping, and that Israel's heavy bombardment of one of the densely populated territories is itself the main factor putting civilians at risk.

Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that while using human shields violates international humanitarian law, "this does not give Israel the excuse to violate international humanitarian law as well."

UN Calls for Israeli-Palestinian CeasefirePlay Video

Israel issues early warnings before attacking many Gaza targets and the military says it uses other means to do its utmost to avoid harming bystanders. But Michaeli said civilians have been killed when Israel bombed family homes of Hamas militants or when residents were unable to leave their homes quickly enough following the Israeli warnings.

The "Iron Dome," a U.S.-funded, Israel-developed rocket defense system, has intercepted more than 130 incoming rockets, preventing any Israeli fatalities so far. A handful of Israelis have been wounded by rockets that slipped through.

Militant rockets have reached further into Israel than ever before, with air raid sirens sounding even in the northern city of Haifa, 100 miles (160 kilometers) away.

On Saturday, air raid sirens went off in Jerusalem, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from Gaza, for a third time. The rocket landed near the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank, damaging a house but causing no injuries.

The frequent rocket fire has disrupted daily life in Israel, particularly in southern communities that have absorbed the brunt of it. Israelis mostly have stayed close to home. Television channels air non-stop coverage of the violence and radio broadcasts are interrupted live with every air raid siren warning of incoming rockets.

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Israeli soldiers on a mobile artillery unit fire a shell towards Gaza at a position on the Israel-Ga …

The frequent airstrikes have turned the normally frenetic Gaza City into a virtual ghost town during the normally festive monthlong Ramadan holiday, emptying streets, closing shops and keeping hundreds of thousands of people close to home where they feel safest from the bombs.

The offensive is the heaviest fighting since a similar eight-day campaign in November 2012 to stop Gaza rocket fire. The outbreak of violence follows the kidnappings and killings of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, and the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teenager in an apparent revenge attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on with the campaign until there is a halt to rocket attacks. Israel has massed thousands of troops along the border in preparation for a possible ground invasion, with soldiers atop vehicles mobilized and ready to move into Gaza if the order arrives.

A senior military official said Saturday that Israel estimated Hamas still had thousands of rockets in its arsenal and it would take Israel more time to eliminate the threat to its civilians.

"There is no knockout. It is more complicated," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of military guidelines.

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Palestinians walk past the ruins of the Al-Tawfeeq mosque after it was hit by an Israeli missile str …

Israel asserts it has strong support from its allies to hammer Hamas, but it has begun coming under international pressure as Palestinian casualties have grown.

In London, Foreign Minister William Hague of Britain, a close Israeli ally, said he had spoken to his Israeli counterpart and called for an "immediate de-escalation" and expressed his "deep concern" about civilian casualties.

He called for "urgent, concerted international action to secure a cease-fire" and said he would discuss that goal with his American, French and German counterparts in Vienna on Sunday.

The Arab League said foreign ministers from member states will hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Monday evening to discuss the continued Israeli offensive and measures to urge the international community to pressure Israel.

Egypt, which historically has served as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, appears less eager to help out this time. Hamas was particularly close to the Muslim Brotherhood, who the current leadership banned after driving it from power last year.

Still, it has tried to show support for Palestinians by opening its crossing with Gaza, allowing deliveries of food and medical supplies and evacuation of some wounded.

____

Heller reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Israel strikes Gaza mosque as death toll climbs

The bombing of a mosque is a first for Israel, says Hamas, as Palestinian casualties continue to rise.
No Israeli fatalities so far

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi police say gunmen have killed at least 33 people, including 29 women, in a raid on two buildings in a housing complex in Baghdad.

Police officials say the gunmen showed up in four-wheel drive vehicles before storming the buildings in the Zayounah neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. They say at least 18 people were wounded.

Police have cordoned off the area.

An Interior Ministry official and hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures.

The motive behind the killings was not immediately clear.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

In this Friday, July 11, 2014 photo, an Islamic militant speaks to people during a celebration of their declaration of an Islamic state at a mosque in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Sunni militants seized control of the Anbar city of Fallujah, and parts of Ramadi in January. The government has since reasserted its control of Ramadi, but Fallujah remains in insurgent hands. (AP Photo)

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BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.N. urged Iraq's leaders Saturday to overcome their deep divisions and move quickly to form a new government that can unite the country and confront a surging militant threat, warning that failure to do so "risks plunging the country into chaos."

The Sunni insurgent blitz over the past month has driven Iraq into its deepest crisis since the last American troops left in 2011, pushing bloodshed to levels unseen since the height of the Iraq war, sending Sunni-Shiite tensions soaring and raising the specter of a nation cleaved in three along ethnic and sectarian lines.

Iraq's new parliament is scheduled on Sunday to hold its second session amid hopes that lawmakers can quickly decide on a new prime minister, president and speaker of parliament — the first steps toward forming a new government. It failed to make any progress in its first session, and postponed its second session until Sunday.

U.N special envoy to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, called on lawmakers to attend the meeting and forge an agreement on new leaders. He warned of dire consequences if the current political deadlock drags on.

"It will only serve the interests of those who seek to divide the people of Iraq and destroy their chances for peace and prosperity," he said in a statement. "Iraq needs a team that can bring people together. Now is not the time for mutual accusations, now is the time for moving forward and compromising in the interest of the Iraqi people."

In Baghdad, gunmen in four-wheel drive vehicles raided two buildings in a housing complex in the Zayounah neighborhood late Saturday, killing at least 33 people, including 29 women, police said. They say at least 18 people were wounded.

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In this Friday, July 11, 2014 photo, an Islamic militant speaks to people during a celebration of th …

An Interior Ministry official and hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures.

The motive behind the killings was not immediately clear, but police said there are suspicions that the buildings were being used as a brothel.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has ruled the country since 2006, is under pressure to step aside. His government's inability to prevent the attack, let alone roll back the militant advance, has sapped public — and international — confidence in his ability to hold Iraq together and lift it out of the crisis.

Al-Maliki's opponents, and even many of his former allies, accuse him of trying to monopolize power and alienating the Sunni community, and are pushing him to not seek a third consecutive term. Al-Maliki has so far refused to withdraw his candidacy, and points to his State of Law bloc's capturing the most seats in April elections to claim he has a mandate.

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An Iraq weapon dealer cleans his weapon at his home in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 12, 2014. The w …

Even though parliament delayed its second session by five days, lawmakers appear unlikely to achieve a major breakthrough Sunday on choosing new leadership, setting the stage for further political wrangling in the days and weeks ahead.

The militants, who have tapped into the deep disaffection among Iraq's minority Sunnis with al-Maliki, have swept through most of the country's predominantly Sunni areas in the north and west. The front lines have largely stabilized since their offensive encountered greater resistance in majority Shiite areas, although heavy fighting rages on.

On Saturday, Iraqi troops supported by Shiite militiamen battled Sunni militants who had seized at least partial control of a military base outside the town of Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad. The troops and pro-government fighters succeeded in pushing insurgents out of the nearby hamlet of Nofal, but the base remained split between the warring sides, police officials said.

Police and hospital officials said the bodies of 16 pro-government fighters — a mix of soldiers and militiamen — killed in the fighting were taken to the morgue in Muqdadiyah, and another 15 were taken to the provincial capital of Baqouba. They said a family of five, including three children, was killed in government airstrikes on Nofal.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

To the west of Baghdad, the government airlifted some 4,000 volunteers to Ramadi to boost their forces trying to defend the city from militant attack, said Gen. Rasheed Flayeh, the commander of operations in Anbar province. The operation began Friday and finished Saturday.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, an overwhelmingly Sunni province and one of the most active battle fronts in Iraq. The Islamic State extremist group and other Sunni militants seized control of the Anbar city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in January. The government has since reasserted its control of Ramadi, but Fallujah remains in insurgent hands.

The vast majority of volunteer fighters are Shiites who have answered a call from the country's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to defend Iraq from the Sunni militants led by the Islamic State group, which has unilaterally declared the establishment of an Islamic state ruled by Shariah law in the territory it controls straddling the Iraq-Syria border.

The government's reliance on Shiite militias — who have deployed in sizeable numbers to several cities across the country — to help counter the militant threat has ramped up sectarian tensions, fueling fears that Iraq could return to the wholesale sectarian bloodletting that engulfed the country in 2006 and 2007.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli naval commandos clashed with Hamas militants in a raid on the coast of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, in what appeared to be the first ground assault of a six-day Israeli offensive on the territory aimed at stopping Palestinian rocket fire.

With aerial support from fighter jets, the Israeli force attacked a site in northern Gaza used to launch long-range rockets, an Israeli military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, said. Militants opened fire, wounding four commandos, but the launch site was hit, he said.

Hamas said its fighters had fired at the Israeli force offshore, preventing them from landing.

Lerner said the forces had "completed their mission" and that the results of the raid "would be the first published ground activity" by naval troops in Gaza, in an offensive that Palestinian officials said has killed 149 Palestinians, many of them civilians.

No Israeli has been killed by Hamas's rocket fire.

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An explosion is seen in the northern Gaza Strip after an Israeli air strike July 13, 2014. REUTERS/A …

Two hours after the announcement of the raid at 0100 GMT, militants fired a long-range rocket salvo, with air raid sirens sounding at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport and some city suburbs.

Israel says a ground invasion of Gaza remains an option, and it has already mobilized about 20,000 reservists to do so, but most attacks have so far been from the air, hitting some 1,200 targets in the territory.

Lerner said Israel would drop leaflets in northern Gaza's Beit Lahiya to urge thousands of residents to evacuate ahead of planned strikes there.

"It's our assessment a huge majority of rockets are being launched (at Israel) from northern areas" in Gaza, he said.

Islamist Hamas, which dominates Gaza, has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, striking the deepest inside the country ever.

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Israeli soldiers from the Nahal Infantry Brigade walk across a field near central Gaza Strip July 12 …

The Israeli military said more than 800 rockets had been launched since its offensive began on Tuesday. Israel said it has carried out 1,320 attacks on militant targets, half against rocket launch sites, and the rest at command centers, rocket manufacturing installations, warehouses and smuggling tunnels.

The cross-border violence shows no signs of abating despite mounting international pressure on both sides to end the violence. The U.N. Security Council called for a cessation of hostilities and Western Foreign Ministers were due to meet on Sunday to discuss the need for a ceasefire.

Sirens warning of incoming rockets went off throughout the night in Israel, sending residents running for safe rooms and bomb shelters.

Israeli aircraft carried out a series of attacks in Gaza, including against a police headquarters and a security compound, Palestinian officials said.

GAZA CIVILIANS KILLED

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Palestinians stand amongst the rubble of Tayseer Al-Batsh's family house, which police said was …

A woman and a three-year-old girl were killed in the air strikes in the early hours of Sunday morning, Palestinian officials said.

An Israeli air strike on the home of Gaza's police chief killed 18 people on Saturday, Gaza's health ministry said, in what was the single deadliest attack of the offensive, while Hamas fired its largest salvo of rockets yet on Tel Aviv.

A Hamas source said the police chief, Tayseer Al-Batsh, was in critical condition. All of those killed in the air strike which television footage showed was reduced to piles of rubble, were members of Al-Batsh's family.

Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza Health ministry, said 45 people were wounded and others were still trapped under the rubble where rescue workers were searching.

Israel says it tries to avoid civilian casualties and accuses of Hamas of putting innocent Gazans in harm's way by placing weaponry and gunmen in residential areas.

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Israeli soldiers from the Nahal Infantry Brigade walk across a field near central Gaza Strip July 12 …

A senior Israeli military officer said aircraft had aborted "hundreds" of strikes to avoid collateral damage and that targets bombed were meant to impact Hamas fire capacity.

Many of the rockets have been shot down above Israeli towns by Iron Dome, a partly U.S.-funded interceptor system. Israel rushed an eighth Iron Dome into service on Saturday to counter stronger-than-expected rocket fire from Gaza.

Israel said it intercepted nine of 131 rockets launched at central areas, sending hundreds of thousands of its civilians running for cover in the south and in Tel Aviv. Nineteen rockets crashed into open areas.

Fire was also exchanged across Israel's northern border.

Rockets fired late on Saturday from Lebanon hit Israel, and the military said it responded with artillery fire.

Southern Lebanon is a stronghold of Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim group that battled Israel seven years ago and is engaged in Syria's civil war in support of President Bashar al-Assad; but there are also Palestinian groups in the same area.

Israel believes a Palestinian group was behind that rocket attack and not Hezbollah, Lerner said. Hamas claimed responsibility for the rocket fire from Lebanon.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)