Special report: Israel-Lebanon conflicts [Gallery] [Videos]

 Israel, Lebanon agree on ceasefire

    JERUSALEM, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday announced a government inquiry into the "failure" during the country's 34-day-long fighting with Lebanese Hezbollah.

    Olmert announced the order while speaking in a conference of Israeli mayors in the northern city of Haifa, which endured multiple deadly Hezbollah rocket attacks, said media reports reaching here from Haifa.

    According to the reports, the prime minister will name a commission, headed by Nahum Admoni, a former chief of Israel's notorious Mossad spy agency, to be charged with examining the conduct of the government.

    Olmert, meanwhile, recognized the failure of the war with Hezbollah for the first time, saying "we did not always achieve the aims we hoped for. There were problems and failures."

    "We have suffered severe losses.... We have not succeeded in stopping the Katyushas (Hezbollah rocket attacks)... and moreover we have not returned the captured soldiers," Olmert told the mayors.

    "There is real, honest criticism from the heart of reserve soldiers, of citizens... I hear them and I respect them and what they have to say. There are some things that they are right in and some things that I disagree with," he added.

    However, Olmert reiterated his rejection to calls for a state probing commission, the most sweeping type of public inquiry, because "it would paralyze the leadership at a time when Israel needed to be prepare for a threat from Iran".

    Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah broke out fighting on July 12 after two Israeli soldiers were captured and eight others killed by the Lebanese Shiite group in cross-border attacks.

    The 34-day-long conflict, which caused over 1,000 Lebanese and 157 Israelis killed in addition to huge property damages and economic losses of both sides, came to a cease-fire on Aug. 14 thanks to the UN Resolution 1701. Enditem