A top Hezbollah commander has been killed in an Israeli strike in the suburbs of Lebanon’s capital of Beirut on Friday, two security sources have told the Reuters news agency.
Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s operations commander, was killed in a strike that killed three people and wounded 17 others, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
One of the security sources said he was killed alongside members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit as they were holding a meeting.
It comes as fighting between Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel has intensified in the past few days after 37 people were killed when pagers and radios across Lebanon blew up in two separate attacks.
That attack was widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed or denied its involvement.
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Aqil has served as the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and Jihad Council, the group’s highest military body.
The US State Department has sanctioned him for his alleged role in carrying out the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people.
It had been offering a reward of $7m (£5.3m) for information about Aqil.
The US said he was the “principal member” of the group that bombed the American embassy in 1983, and the US Marine barracks in the same year, killing 241 US personnel.
Aqil’s death marks the second time in less than two months Israel has targeted a top Hezbollah commander.
In July an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, the militant group’s top military commander.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the strike in Beirut on Friday shows Israel “gives no weight to any humanitarian, legal or moral considerations”.
The strike is also reported to have killed five children, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a “targeted strike” on the city.
Sky News’ special correspondent Alex Crawford said the attack appeared to have hit a residential apartment block.
Israel’s rare strike on the capital’s southern suburbs came after Iranian-backed Hezbollah pounded Israel with 140 rockets, which the Israeli military said came in three waves targeting sites along the ravaged border with Lebanon.
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Following the attacks, the Israeli military said that it had struck areas across southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, but did not provide details of damage.
Hezbollah said that its attacks had targeted several sites along the border with Katyusha rockets, including multiple air defence bases as well as the headquarters of an Israeli armoured brigade they said they had struck for the first time.
The developments of the past few days have raised strong concerns of an all-out war in the region, with Israel also engaged in an 11-month war with Hamas, another militant group backed by Iran, in Gaza.
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