29 killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon

At least twenty-five civilians and four Lebanese soldiers were killed today.

At least twenty-five civilians and four Lebanese soldiers were killed on Sunday as Israel continued to bombard the country despite an impending ceasefire, police and rescue workers said.

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Israeli troops battled Hezbollah militants near the southern port city of Tyre, after the Jewish state suffered its biggest single-day death toll of the month-old war on Saturday, losing 24 of its soldiers.

Israel said five of its soldiers were killed on Sunday.

The bloodshed went on even after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced that the governments of Israel and Lebanon agreed to halt fighting at 1030 IST on Monday.

At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded on Sunday by Israeli air strikes that hit eight buildings and a mosque in Beirut's southern suburbs, rescue workers said.

Rescuers continued to search under the rubble of a block of eight buildings and the Imam Hassan mosque, which collapsed in the Rweiss neighbourhood in the Shia-dominated suburbs, a correspondent on the scene said.

Ten bodies have been retrieved from the ruins, a rescue worker said, adding that about 30 people were still unaccounted for after being reported missing by residents of the area.

Neighbours tried in vain to dig them out and rescue services had still not arrived at the site two hours later because Tyre was under continued bombardment.