Hizbollah rocket kills 12 Israeli reserve soldiers

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

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.

Medics put the toll at 12, with dozens of people wounded.

Soldiers near the scene held their heads and one wept 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 on a stone 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, on Channel 2 Television.

A reporter for Army Radio said residents who had remained in Kfar Giladi despite frequent rocket barrages stood around and wept as they stared in shock at the bodies.

The attack occurred near the communal farm's graveyard, not far from the Lebanese border.

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

Medics said several soldiers among the wounded were in critical condition.

The casualties bring to 45 the number of people killed in northern Israel in rocket strikes since war broke out on July 12 after Hizbollah seized two soldiers in a cross-border raid.

At least 153 rockets landed across northern Israel today, police said.

Dozens of rockets hit the commercial centre of the largely deserted border town of Kiryat Shmona, wrecking shops and destroying cars, witnesses said.

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 have fled because of the rocket attacks.

The strike on Kfar Giladi was the deadliest Hizbollah rocket attack 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 some 2,700 rockets at Israel.

REUTERS LL RN2327