Arab League chief calls for Qana "massacre" probe

CAIRO, July 30 (Reuters) Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa today joined a chorus of Arab leaders in denouncing an Israeli air strike that killed 54 people in Lebanon, terming it a ''massacre'' and demanding an international probe.

The dawn air raid, which was the single bloodiest attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah guerrillas, pulverised several buildings, including a three-storey house in which civilians were sheltering, killing people in their sleep.

''The Arab League Secretary-General requested an international investigation into this massacre and other Israeli war crimes that were committed in Lebanon, especially those that affected Lebanese civilians,'' an Arab League statement said.

The bombing in the southern village of Qana prompted Lebanon to tell U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has resisted calling for an immediate truce, that she was unwelcome in Beirut before a ceasefire.

In Cairo, scores of opposition lawmakers joined a protest march of several hundred people from parliament to the Arab League. They carried placards that said: ''We're all with the resistance'' and chanted demands to expel the Israeli ambassador and ''liquidate Zionists''.

Moussa, who characterised Israeli attacks in Lebanon as ''savage'', also called on the United Nations Security Council to pressure Israel to stop its military offensive.

Among the dead in Qana were 37 children. At least 542 people have been killed in Lebanon in the war, although the health minister has estimated a toll of 750 including unrecovered bodies. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed.

'UGLY CRIME' But the attack in Qana, already a potent symbol in Lebanon because of a deadly 1996 Israeli attack there, sparked a fresh outpouring of Arab rage.

Syria, at odds with Washington over support for Hizbollah, labelled the attack as ''state terrorism'' while U.S. ally Jordan called it an ''ugly crime''.

''The massacre committed by Israel in Qana this morning shows the barbarity of this aggressive entity,'' Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was quoted as saying by state news agency SANA. ''It constitutes state terrorism committed in front of the eyes and ears of the world.'' Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Israeli attacks would not break the will of the Lebanese people and called for unity ''in the face of Israeli war criminals''.

Jordan's King Abdullah, whose country is one of two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, called on the international community to ''find a way out of this crisis''.

''This criminal aggression is an ugly crime that has been committed by the Israeli forces in the city of Qana that is a gross violation of all international statutes,'' Abdullah said.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, also a key U.S. ally, said: ''The Arab Republic of Egypt expresses its profound alarm and its condemnation of the irresponsible Israeli bombing of the Lebanese village of Qana, which resulted in innocent casualties, mostly women and children.'' Egypt and Jordan, along with Saudi Arabia, are worried that a prolonged conflict could strengthen the hands of radical Muslim groups across the region.

The Libyan government said it would seek to end the violence through contacts with U.N. Security Council members and step up donations of medicine and food to Lebanon.

Reuters SKU DB2025