Saturday | 5 October 2024 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Saturday | 5 October 2024 | Epaper
BREAKING: ● BNP demands steps against ABM Khairul Huque at dialogue with CA      ● 3 die in Sherpur flood; 60,000 stranded      ● Ex-president Badruddoza Chowdhury passes away      ● Killing during students' movement: 9 bodies to be exhumed in Sylhet      ● Malaysian prime minister leaves Dhaka for home      ● CA seeks Malaysian support for Bangladesh to be ASEAN dialogue partner      ● Malaysian PM assures of attention to 18,000 Bangladesh workers       

Two Hezbollah leaders among 37 killed in Israel’s Beirut strike 

Published : Sunday, 22 September, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 240
BEIRUT, Sept 21: Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, which has been exchanging fire with Israel for months, on Saturday announced that two commanders of its elite operations unit had been killed by an Israeli strike on Beirut, which authorities said left 37 people dead.

Health Minister Firass Abiad said three children were also killed in Friday's strike on an underground meeting room, which AFP journalists said left a huge crater in a densely populated neighbourhood of the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel said the strike killed the head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil, and several other commanders.

The military said Saturday it was again hitting targets "belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in Lebanon", without elaborating.

The Iran-backed group later said it targeted at least seven military positions in northern Israel and the annexed Golan Heights with rockets, and AFP correspondents reported heavy Israeli strikes in south Lebanon.

Israel's military also said it targeted a Hamas command centre in Gaza City that it alleged was "embedded inside" a school, where rescuers said 21 people were killed in adjacent buildings used as a shelter.

Abiad, Lebanon's health minister, said emergency services worked "through the night" to recover victims from the Beirut strike, adding that "a residential building collapsed on top of occupants" after the Israeli attack.

The Radwan Force has spearheaded Hezbollah's ground operations, and Israel has repeatedly demanded through international mediators that its fighters be pushed back from the border. 

Hezbollah said a second senior commander, Ahmed Mahmud Wahbi, was also killed on Friday. It said he headed the group's operations against Israel from the onset of the Gaza war in October until the start of this year.

Confirming the death of Aqil, who was wanted by the United States for involvement in the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, Hezbollah hailed him as "one of its great leaders".

It was the second Israeli strike on Hezbollah's military leadership since the Gaza war began. In July, an Israeli strike on Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a top operations chief.

Friday's strike also followed sabotage attacks on pagers and two-way radios used by Hezbollah on Tuesday and Wednesday, which killed 39 people. Hezbollah blamed Israel, which has not commented.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed Thursday that Israel would face retribution for those blasts.    —AFP



LATEST NEWS
MOST READ
Also read
Maldives leader heads to India to repair frail ties 
US, India to cooperate on critical minerals 
Erdogan lashes out at Israel for attack on UN chief 
WHO hopes to start Gaza polio vaccination second round on Oct 14 
Lebanon receives first UN aid plane since Israel escalation 
Khamenei says Israel will not defeat Iran as strikes pummelled Lebanon 
Kim threatens to use nukes if attacked 
Biden says does not believe there will be ‘all-out war’ in ME 
Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Online: 41053014; Advertisement: 41053012.
E-mail: info©dailyobserverbd.com, news©dailyobserverbd.com, advertisement©dailyobserverbd.com, For Online Edition: mailobserverbd©gmail.com
🔝