Hezbollah’s special forces chief and 15 other terrorist commanders have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut that left 37 people dead, including three children.
The United States has received confirmation of the death of Ibrahim Aqil, saying that “no one sheds a tear” for the terrorist group’s second-in-command and leader of its Radwan special forces.
Hezbollah responded yesterday by firing up to 100 rockets into Israeli territory. The Iranian-backed organisation also named another senior commander among the victims of Friday’s attack. Ahmed Mahmud Wahbi had led operations against Israel from the start of the Gaza war last October until earlier this year.
The airstrike has “almost completely dismantled” the group’s military chain of command, the Israeli military said last night. The army released a stark chart showing how it has killed six of Hezbollah’s eight most senior commanders this year.
The terrorist group identified a total of 16 senior commanders who were killed in Friday’s attack,
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health ministry said the death toll had risen to 37 people, including seven women and three children.
The United States has received confirmation of the death of Ibrahim Aqil (pictured), saying that “no one sheds a tear” for the terrorist group’s second-in-command and leader of its Radwan special forces.
Israeli warplanes struck a multi-storey building in a southern Beirut suburb where Aqil was meeting with his top lieutenants. Two apartment blocks in the heart of Dahiyeh, a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold, were destroyed in the strike.
Hezbollah’s special forces chief and 15 other terrorist commanders were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut that is said to have left 37 people dead, including three children.
Israeli warplanes struck a multi-storey building in a southern Beirut suburb where Aqil was meeting with his top lieutenants. Two apartment blocks in the heart of Dahiyeh, a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold, were destroyed in the strike.
An Israel Defense Forces statement said Aqil, who was in his 60s, was killed along with other Radwan commanders during a meeting held in an underground bunker.
The career terrorist and close confidant of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, had a £5m bounty on his head for his role in the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people.
He was also involved in the twin bomb attacks on the US Marine barracks in Lebanon the same year, which killed 241 US personnel and 307 people in total.
In a statement delivered at the Israeli-American Council conference in Washington, US Middle East czar Brett McGurk said: “Ibrahim Aqil was responsible for the Beirut embassy bombing 40 years ago, so no one sheds a tear for him.”
Ahmed Mahmud Wahbi was described as a commander who played important roles within the group for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli jail in 1984.
Hezbollah members killed in Israeli strikes. The airstrike has “almost completely dismantled” the group’s military chain of command, the Israeli army said last night.
Plumes of smoke rise from the site of an Israeli airstrike outside the town of Zawtar in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah responded yesterday by firing up to 100 rockets into Israeli territory.
Hezbollah said he was one of the field commanders of a 1997 ambush in southern Lebanon that left 12 Israeli soldiers dead.
The group later announced that replacements Ali Karaki and Talal Hamia would take command of operations following the killings of Aqil and Wahbi.
Friday’s attack dealt another blow to Hezbollah after two days of attacks last week in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members were blown up.
The attacks are widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
