Israeli attacks on targets in Lebanon continued for a second day on Friday with more air strikes around Beirut's international airport and on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.  

The main highway between Beirut and Damascus, Syria, was also bombed. 

Fuel storage tanks burn at Rafik Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 14, 2006, after Israeli helicopter gunships targeted it with missiles late Thursday.
(Hussein Malla/Associated Press)

More than 55 people were killed on Thursday in the first wave of strikes against the airport and two Lebanese military bases. Israel's navy enforced a sea blockade of ports in Lebanon. 

Israel's military campaign is in retaliation for an attack by Hezbollah forces on Wednesday in which two Israeli soldiers were captured and taken into Lebanese territory. Eight other Israeli soldiers were killed in skirmishing along the border.

Hezbollah responded to the first Israeli strikes by firing more than 100 Katushya rockets into northern Israel, killing two civilians.

Lebanese men inspect the damage on a bridge of the main highway between Beirut and southern Lebanon.
(Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press)

Most of the rockets hit the beach town of Nahariya but one fell on the important port city of Haifa, more than 30 kilometres from the Lebanese border. Hezbollah denied firing on Haifa.

Israel has said it holds Lebanon responsible for the capture of its two soldiers and will continue to intensify military pressure until they are released. This is the most intense Israeli military action against Lebanon since Israel invaded and occupied Beirut 24 years ago.

Israel withdrew the last of its forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, easing tensions between the two countries.

UN security council meets

Lebanon has condemned the raids and is pressing for a resolution against Israel at an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Friday morning.

The air strikes opened a second front in Israel's conflicts with its neighbours over abduction of its troops. It has been hammering Gaza for weeks in a campaign to force the release of Gilad Shalit, a 19-year-old corporal seized by Palestinian militants on June 25.

International concern is mounting that the violence could spread. The European Union has criticized Israel for a "disproportionate response."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has called for Israel to exercise restraint and for the return of the two captured Israelis by Hezbollah. But U.S. President George W Bush said Israel has the right to defend itself, so long as the Lebanese government was not destabilized. 

The price of oil hit $78 a barrel, a new high, as the raids continued. 

'An act of war'

The Israeli military said the airport strike and the blockade were intended to cut off supplies to Hezbollah, and that the Lebanese government must move to clamp down on the Beirut-based militants.

"We are taking the Lebanese government as the one who is carrying all the responsibility on its shoulders regarding this area and regarding the future of Lebanon," said Brig.-Gen. Dan Halutz, calling for the return of the two Israelis taken in Wednesday's attack.

Hezbollah leaders offered to exchange the captured soldiers for Arab prisoners currently held in Israeli jails.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the Hezbollah raid an "act of war," and said military action against Lebanon and Hezbollah would intensify until the soldiers were let go.

With files from the Associated Press