Hizbollah rocket kills 10 Israeli reserve soldiers

KFAR GILADI, Israel, Aug 6 (Reuters) Ten Israeli soldiers were killed when a Hizbollah rocket landed in a group of reservists in northern Israel today, the guerrilla group's deadliest single missile strike of the Lebanon war.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said 10 soldiers had been killed and nine wounded, four critically.

The army confirmed reservists called up for duty for ground operations in southern Lebanon had been killed in the attack on the Kfar Giladi communal farm, but did not say how many.

Television footage showed soldiers near the scene holding their heads and one weeping as a military ambulance pulled away.

Helicopters landed nearby to fly the seriously wounded to hospitals further from the war front.

Blood-stained army boots stood against a wall. Stretchers lay on the ground, covered in blood.

One officer looked down at the bodies, some covered by blankets, and shook his head in disbelief.

''I don't recall so many dead ever. This is terrible,'' said Ron Valensi, head of the upper Galilee municipal council and a resident of Kfar Giladi, speaking on Channel 2 Television.

A reporter for Army Radio said residents who had remained in Kfar Giladi, close to the Lebanese border, stood around and wept as they looked at the bodies.

The attack occurred near the communal farm's graveyard.

Smoke rose from two destroyed cars. Trees burned in the aftermath of the attack, sending plumes of smoke into the air.

The casualties bring to 43 the number of people killed in northern Israel in rocket strikes since war erupted on July 12 after Hizbollah seized two soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Other rockets landed around the town of Kiryat Shmona today, officials said. It was unclear if there were casualties.

Israeli soldiers have been staying in a college in the Kfar Giladi communal farm, known as a kibbutz in Israel.

The army has largely taken over the kibbutz, parking tanks and armoured vehicles around the picturesque farm, bordered by pine trees.

Many residents had fled because of the rocket attacks.

The strike on Kfar Giladi was the deadliest Hizbollah rocket strike of the war.

On July 16, a Hizbollah rocket killed eight workers at a railway station in the northern city of Haifa.

Hizbollah has fired more than 2,600 rockets at Israel.

REUTERS AB BD1729