Beirut: The Israeli military announced that its airstrike on Friday on a neighbourhood of Beirut killed Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah military official. There was no immediate confirmation of his death from Hezbollah.
The Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital killed at least nine people and wounded nearly 60 others, according to Lebanese health officials, and flattened two apartment buildings. The Israeli military also claimed that its strike killed other top operatives of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, without elaborating.
A Hezbollah official has confirmed that Akil was supposed to be in the building in the Dahiya district that was hit. Akil has served on Hezbollah's highest military body, the Jihad Council, and has been sanctioned by the United States for being involved in two terrorist attacks in 1983 that killed more than 300 people at the US Embassy in Beirut and the US Marine Corps barracks.
It came shortly after Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets and the region awaited the revenge promised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah over this week's mass bombing attack on pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members.
Since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel prompted the Israeli military's devastating offensive in Gaza, tensions have surged into regular cross-border attacks between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. The exchanges of fire over the past year have largely struck evacuated communities in northern Israel and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon. The last time Israel hit Beirut was in a July airstrike that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
Friday's strike hit the sprawling Dahiya district during rush hour, as people were leaving work and children heading home from school. Local networks broadcast footage that showed a high-rise building completely flattened in Jamous area, just kilometers from downtown Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway. First responders scrambled through the tangled streets and combed through the rubble of at least two collapsed apartment buildings to search for more missing people. Health authorities said at least eight of the 59 wounded were in critical condition.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes security matters, said the strike targeted Ibrahim Akil, the head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force. An official close to Hezbollah also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Akil was supposed to be in the building when it was hit.
It was not immediately clear whether Akil, who also served on Hezbollah's Jihad Council, the group's highest military body, was killed. The United States has sanctioned Akil for his alleged role in carrying out the 1983 bombing that killed more than 300 people at the US Embassy in Beirut and the US Marine Corps barracks. Last year, the State Department posted a USD 7 million reward for information leading to his identification, location, arrest or conviction and said he also directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.
Shortly after the Israeli airstrike on Beirut, Hezbollah announced two more attacks on northern Israel, one of which it said targeted an intelligence base from which it claimed Israel directed assassinations. Israel offered no immediate comment on those latest strikes. Israel and Lebanon have been on edge since Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploded en masse this week, killing at least 20 people and wounding thousands in Lebanon in attacks widely attributed to Israel.
Over the last day, Hezbollah said that it fired rockets at several Israeli military sites along the border with Katyusha rockets, including multiple air defence bases as well as the headquarters of an Israeli armoured brigade. The Israeli military said that 120 missiles were launched at areas of the Golan Heights, Safed and the Upper Galilee, some of which were intercepted. Fire crews were working to extinguish blazes caused by pieces of debris that fell to the ground in several areas, the military said. The military didn't say whether any missiles had hit targets or caused any casualties.