Hezbollah figure Ibrahim Aqil killed in Israeli strike in Beirut

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah operations commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed in a “targeted” Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday, two security sources told Reuters.

According to one of the sources, Ibrahim Aqil, also known as Tahsin, was killed alongside members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit while they were holding a meeting.

Ibrahim Aqil belonged to Hezbollah’s highest military authority, the Jihad Council.

The IDF reported in a statement a “targeted strike” on the Lebanese capital, without giving further details. The bombing took place near Hezbollah infrastructure in the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to the two security sources.

According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, the bombing killed eight people and injured 59 others. The Lebanese Shiite movement’s television channel, Al Manar, had previously given a provisional toll of one dead and 14 injured.

Lebanon’s Civil Defense said rescuers were searching for people under the rubble after two residential buildings collapsed.

“The Israel Defense Forces conducted a targeted strike on Beirut. At this stage, there is no change in the Home Front Command’s defensive instructions,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

This is the second time in less than two months that Israel has targeted a senior Hezbollah military official in Beirut.

In July, an Israeli airstrike killed Fouad Chokr, the group’s top commander.

ROCKET FIRING

The strike is a fresh blow to Hezbollah after two consecutive waves of explosions of pagers and mobile radios used by its operatives killed 37 people and wounded about 3,000 others across the country on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lebanon and Hezbollah accuse Israel of being behind the attacks.

Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, has for its part promised to continue its military operations against the pro-Iranian Shiite movement as part of a new military phase.

Hezbollah had previously announced that it had bombed Israeli positions in seven separate attacks at Katyusha.

The Shiite movement said in a statement that it had attacked the main headquarters of the intelligence services in northern Israel with rockets, adding that the latter “is responsible for the assassinations.”

Israeli state television (KAN) reported that about 150 rockets were fired at Israeli territory from Lebanon. Israeli emergency services did not immediately report any casualties.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that Israel had crossed “all red lines” by carrying out attacks using booby-trapped communications devices in recent days in Lebanon.

In a televised speech, Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that his organization, founded in 1982, had suffered “without a doubt” a very hard blow and “unprecedented in the history of the resistance in Lebanon” with the explosions, in two waves on Tuesday and Wednesday, of thousands of communication devices used by its members.

He assured that Israel would not achieve its new objective on the northern border through military escalation or open war. Only stopping the war in the Gaza Strip would allow a return to calm, he said.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam and Tom Perry in Beirut; James Mackenzie and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Clauda Tanios and Nadine Awadalla in Dubai; Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Zhifan Liu; Editing by Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam and Tom Perry in Beirut …