War between Hezbollah, Israel ravages wide swaths of forest, farmland

AITAROUN, Lebanon —  It was only 10 a.m., but it had already been a long day for the firefighters in these borderlands of southern Lebanon.They had barely finished containing a 130-acre forest fire when a call came in at 2 a.m. about a house in flames. Both blazes were caused by bombs from Israeli warplanes.Now there were three teams, all scrambling one recent Thursday morning to deal with fires from Israeli strikes across the 15 villages and towns under their mandate. “At this rate, we’ll have to get the reserve teams,” said Ali Qashaqish, 36, who heads field operations for…