Hezbollah rockets hammer northern Israel *

By ARON HELLER Associated Press Writer
Friday, August 04, 2006 12:17 p.m. ET

KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel (AP) -- Hezbollah rockets hammered northern
Israel on Friday, including a half-hour barrage of 45 missiles that
killed four Israelis, three of them Arabs.

One rocket crashed into a house in the Arab village of Mughar, near the
town of Tiberias, killing a 26-year-old woman and seriously wounding a
second person, police said.

An Israeli man died near the town of Kiryat Shemona, police said. At
least four people were wounded in Kiryat Shemona, Safed and Kfar Horpash.

Later, rockets hit the Arab villages of Majdel Krum and Dir el-Assad,
killing a man in each, police said.

Some rockets overshot their targets in northern Israel and landed in
Syrian territory, the Israeli military said.

An army spokesman said some rockets landed in the Golan Heights _
captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in
1981. Others landed in Syrian territory around the town of Kuneitra.
There were no casualties on the Israeli-controlled side, he said.

Eight Israelis were killed in two northern towns Thursday, tying
Israel's bloodiest day in the conflict to date for civilians since
fighting erupted July 12. A total of 31 Israeli civilians have been
killed by missiles, while 43 Israeli soldiers have died in combat.

Police commander Dan Ronen said an opening barrage of 45 rockets rained
onto towns across the north during a 30-minute period. He said missiles
continued to fall after that, reaching about 140 by mid-afternoon.

The apparently coordinated firing of a large number of rockets at one
time could be a new tactic for Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon,
who previously have fired off missiles in smaller salvos.

Since independence in 1948, Israel has never come under such intensive
fire as it has in the last three weeks, a top police officer said.

"We are used to dealing with terror on our streets," Brig. Gen. Dov
Lutzski, deputy police chief in northern Israel, said, referring to
years of suicide bombings. "But this is a different kind of terror that
rains in on us from the skies."

As of late Thursday, police counted 2,286 rockets hitting Israel,
destroying property and scorching vast swaths of forests and fields. On
Wednesday alone, Israel was hit by 225 rockets, the largest number in a
single day.

The guerrillas have broadened their range of weaponry, reinforcing their
standard armory of 122-mm Katyusha rockets that have a range of 12
miles. Now they have 302-mm rockets, with more than five times that
range and which have struck more than 45 miles south of the Lebanon border.

Police officials displayed an array of rockets to reporters in this
northern town, which has been a frequent target. Among them were 240-mm
Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles, with a range of 28 miles that have
repeatedly hit Haifa, Israel's third largest city.

Some of the rockets can carry as much as 132 pounds of high explosives
and hold as many as 50,000 metal ball bearings.