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Israel focused a senior Hizbollah commander on Friday in an air strike on the group’s stronghold in southern Beirut, escalating hostilities between the 2 sides and fuelling fears of a full-blown struggle.
The goal was Hizbollah’s operations commander, Ibrahim Aqil, in response to folks conversant in the matter, who has a $7mn US bounty on his head over his alleged involvement within the 1983 bombings in Beirut that killed tons of of individuals.
Lebanon’s state-run information company reported that an F-35 warplane launched 4 missiles into the Jamous space of Dahiyeh, putting a residential constructing. It has not but been confirmed if Aqil was within the constructing or among the many eight folks Lebanese authorities stated had been killed within the strike.
It capped every week of lethal mass detonations of the Iran-backed militant group’s communications gadgets that killed 37 folks and injured hundreds extra. Hizbollah has blamed the assaults on Israel, which has circuitously commented.
The Israeli strike on Friday is the second focusing on a senior Hizbollah commander in southern Beirut because the battle erupted final October. A July strike on a residential constructing in Dahiyeh killed Fuad Shukr, Hizbollah’s prime army commander.
Aqil, like Shukr, was one of many group’s earliest founding members and sat on Hizbollah’s Jihad Council, the group’s highest army physique, in response to 4 folks conversant in Hizbollah’s operations.
Aqil, who headed the group’s particular operations, is suspected by the US of involvement in assaults 41 years in the past in Beirut on the US and French barracks, which killed 307 folks, and the US embassy, which killed 63.
Hizbollah didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark concerning Aqil. However the strike dealt one other humiliating blow to Lebanon’s dominant political and army power, which was nonetheless reeling from the mass detonations this week.
Not less than 59 folks had been injured in Friday’s strike on Beirut, Lebanon’s ministry of well being stated. That quantity was prone to climb because the assault passed off throughout rush hour in a densely packed neighbourhood.
Lebanon’s civil defence authorities stated rescue efforts had been ongoing, with folks nonetheless being pulled from the rubble after two residential buildings collapsed.
Footage circulating on social media confirmed burnt-out automobiles and enormous piles of rubble the place a constructing would have stood, indicating a considerable strike. Broadcasting reside from the scene, Hizbollah’s Al-Manar TV confirmed a constructing with its entrance facade blown off.
The strike in Beirut got here amid intensifying salvos between Israeli forces and Hizbollah, which have been exchanging cross-border fireplace since Hizbollah began launching rockets at Israel in assist of Hamas on October 8, the day after the Palestinian militant group’s assault on Israel.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant declared this week that the struggle between the 2 foes had entered a “new part”, including on Thursday night that Hizbollah “pays an rising worth”.
On Thursday night time, the Israeli army stated that its jets struck round 100 rocket launchers in Lebanon that had been because of fireplace at Israel “within the instant future”. It was one in all Israel’s heaviest rounds of strikes on Lebanon because the begin of the struggle.
On Friday, Hizbollah fired greater than 140 rockets at Israeli-controlled territory, in response to the Israeli army, sparking fires in a number of areas. There have been no instant stories of casualties.
Following the strike on Beirut, Hizbollah stated it had launched extra rocket salvos focusing on what it stated had been army installations, together with one army intelligence headquarters it stated was “answerable for assassinations”.
US Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby stated the US nonetheless didn’t see a wider struggle as “inevitable”.
“We don’t need to see escalation, we don’t need to see a second entrance on this struggle opened up,” Kirby stated. “Every part we’re doing goes to be to attempt to forestall that consequence.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who condemned the “felony” assaults on Lebanon this week, stated he had requested an emergency assembly of the UN Safety Council. “All of the communications I acquired yesterday from senior worldwide officers confirmed that the Israeli enemy crossed crimson strains,” he stated.
Mikati stated he would head to the US for diplomatic talks on the sidelines of the UN Common Meeting “to claim that there’s nonetheless house obtainable for a diplomatic resolution”.
Further reporting by Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper in Beirut and Felicia Schwartz in Washington
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