Calls for Olmert to quit after Halutz resigns

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel's military chief, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, has resigned, the military announced yesterday, yielding to widespread demands that he pay the price for Israel's flawed summer war in Lebanon.

The decision to step aside prompted calls for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz to follow suit because of their roles in Israel's largest military operation since 1982.

There was no immediate reaction from Olmert or Peretz to those calls.

Halutz stepped down at the end of an already turbulent day for Olmert.

Hours earlier, the Justice Ministry ordered police to launch a criminal investigation into his conduct in the sale of Israel's second-largest bank before he became prime minister last year.

Olmert himself will be questioned in the case, aides said yesterday.

Troops, bereaved families and even members of Israel's tightly knit military elite have been calling for Halutz's head ever since the war against Hezbollah ended on August 14.

Critics demand answers

Israel launched the full-scale assault just hours after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others on July 12.

The country went into the war as a united front against Hezbollah, but that solidarity collapsed after the fighting ended.

Critics questioned whether Israel went too hastily to a war that ended without achieving its declared aims - recovering the captured soldiers and crushing Hezbollah.

More than 1,200 people were killed on both sides, most in Lebanon, according to UN, Israeli and Lebanese officials. Israel claims it killed 600 fighters, but Lebanon says most of its casualties were civilians.