Hezbollah targets Israeli troops in response to attacks deep inside Lebanon

Special Hezbollah targets Israeli troops in response to attacks deep inside Lebanon
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Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Adaisseh, near the border with Israel, on August 28, 2024. (AFP)
Special Hezbollah targets Israeli troops in response to attacks deep inside Lebanon
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A house damaged in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on August 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 28 August 2024
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Hezbollah targets Israeli troops in response to attacks deep inside Lebanon

Hezbollah targets Israeli troops in response to attacks deep inside Lebanon
  • Latest assaults by Israeli forces include drone strike that killed member of Hezbollah and 3 members of Islamic Jihad
  • Israeli reconnaissance aircraft continue to monitor Hezbollah movements and drones target party members

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it launched an “aerial attack with an assault drone on the newly established headquarters of the Israeli army’s Western Brigade south of the Ya’ara settlement” on Wednesday that “accurately struck the positions of officers and soldiers.”

The group said the assault was a response to an “Israeli attack on Tuesday night against a truck on the Baalbek-Homs international road.” The truck was reportedly loaded with ammunition and military logistical equipment. One person was “slightly injured” in that attack, the Ministry of Health’s Emergency Center said.

A security source said the vehicle was part of a three-truck convoy but only one was hit by the strike, adding: “The truck caught fire and explosions were heard coming from it.”

Hezbollah imposed a security cordon around the scene of the attack and prevented residents from approaching. Many people living nearby left the area temporarily out of fear for their safety.

Less than 10 hours before the attack on the truck, Hezbollah member Mohammed Hassan Taha, from the city of Baalbek, and three Palestinian members of the Islamic Jihad movement were killed by Israeli forces in a combat-drone strike on their vehicle while they were traveling from Syria to Lebanon. The incident happened on the Damascus-to-Beirut road at a checkpoint near Al-Zabadani junction.

The Israeli army said it “struck Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon.” Reconnaissance aircraft and combat drones remain active around the clock each day, hunting for Hezbollah members.

The drone attack that killed Taha was at least the third Israeli assassination of its kind in the area in the past two months. Previous targets have included Yasser Qarnabesh, a former assistant to Hezbollah’s secretary-general, and Syrian businessman Baraa Al-Qaterji.

Further evidence on Wednesday of escalating tensions included at least four Israeli airstrikes that targeted areas on the outskirts of Toumat Niha in Western Bekaa, and the launch of rockets toward the Lebanese border town of Aitaroun. Another town close to the border, Markaba, was reportedly hit by phosphorus bombs.

Israeli shelling also caused fires in olive groves and other agricultural areas in Al-Jabeen and the Tair Harfa triangle. Lebanese Civil Defense teams fought the blazes with support from the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Eleven months of Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon have left dozens of front-line towns scorched, entire neighborhoods razed, more than 110,000 residents displaced, and farmers unable to tend their lands.

Health Ministry figures indicate that the death toll in Lebanon during the conflict between Israeli forces and Hezbollah is at least 564, mostly Hezbollah leaders and members, and 1,848 people have been wounded.

On the Israeli side, 24 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed and hundreds of people injured, according to media reports.

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US forces strike Daesh group in Syria

Updated 3 sec ago
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US forces strike Daesh group in Syria

US forces strike Daesh group in Syria
  • US military has around 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against Daesh group
Washington: US forces have conducted air strikes against multiple Daesh group sites in Syria, the military said Saturday, as ally Israel battles other militants in Gaza and Lebanon.
US forces “conducted a series of airstrikes against multiple known Daesh camps in Syria in the early morning of Oct. 11,” the US Central Command said in a statement on X, using an acronym for the Islamist militant group.
“The strikes will disrupt the ability of Daesh to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond.”
The US military has around 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against Daesh group.
The coalition was established in 2014 to help combat the armed group, which had taken over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Anti-IS coalition forces have been targeted dozens of times with drones and rocket fire in both Iraq and Syria, as violence related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza since last year has drawn in militants across the Middle East, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
US forces have carried out multiple retaliatory strikes against militant factions in both Iraq and Syria.
In September, US forces conducted two separate strikes in Syria, killing 37 “terrorist operatives” including members of IS and Al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras Al-Din.
US Central Command said Saturday that its damage assessments were underway and “do not indicate civilian casualties.”

Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks

Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks
Updated 3 min 51 sec ago
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Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks

Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks
  • Ban imposed weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Israel

TEHRAN: Iran has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, local media reported Saturday, weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Israel.
“The entry of any electronic communication device, except mobile phones, in flight cabins or ... in non-accompanied cargo, has been banned,” ISNA news agency reported, citing the spokesman for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization Jafar Yazerlo.
The decision came over three weeks since sabotage attacks targeting members of the Iran-allied Hezbollah group in Lebanon that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode, killing at least 39 people.
Nearly 3,000 others were wounded in the attack, which Iran and Hezbollah blamed on Israel, including Tehran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani.
Earlier this month, Dubai-based airline Emirates banned pagers and walkie-talkies onboard its planes.
Regional tensions have soared since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October last year, drawing in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Multiple airlines have in recent weeks suspended flights to Iran following Tehran’s missile attack on Israel on October 1.
Iran fired some 200 missiles at Israel to retaliate against the killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the region and a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel has since vowed to retaliate, with defense minister Yoav Gallant saying the response will be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”


Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut

Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut
Updated 12 October 2024
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Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut

Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut
  • Israeli air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area killed at least 22 people
  • Attack targeted the Iran-backed group’s security chief Wafiq Safa, but his fate remains unknown

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday denounced Israel’s “crimes” as he visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut in recent weeks, an AFP photographer said.

A source close to Hezbollah has said that the air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area, which killed at least 22 people, had targeted the Iran-backed Lebanese group’s security chief Wafiq Safa.

But neither the Israeli military nor Hezbollah confirmed that he was the target of the strike, nor did they remark on his fate.

Speaking to the press, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, Ghalibaf denounced what he called Israel’s “crimes.”

“International organizations and the UN Security Council have the capability (to stop Israel) but they are unfortunately keeping silent,” he said.

Earlier Saturday, Ghalibaf met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who told him his government’s priority was “to work toward a ceasefire,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.

The premier on Friday urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an “immediate” ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Ghalibaf was also expected to meet his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berri, a powerful Hezbollah ally, before heading to Geneva later the same day, according to Berri’s office and Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

When he visited Lebanon on Friday last week, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country backed efforts for a simultaneous ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and Lebanon.


Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says

Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says
Updated 12 October 2024
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Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says

Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says

ISTANBUL: Russia, Syria and Iran should take more effective measures to protect Syria’s territorial integrity, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said, when asked about Israel’s recent strike on Damascus.
“We will defend an urgent and permanent peace in Syria...Israel is the most concrete threat to regional and global peace,” Erdogan said in an interview with Turkish media.
“It is essential that Russia, Iran and Syria take more effective measures against this situation, which poses the greatest threat to Syria’s territorial integrity,” according to a readout of the interview from the presidency.


Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza

Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza
Updated 12 October 2024
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Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza

Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza
  • People asked to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed as a humanitarian zone
  • Residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters

The Israeli military on Saturday renewed its orders for Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters as troops press on a weeklong offensive against militants.
Military spokesman Avichay Adraee told people to leave parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and other areas in and around Jabaliya, the urban refugee camp where Israeli forces carried out several major operations over the course of the war and then returned as militants regroup.
In a post on X, Adraee asked people to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed by the military as a humanitarian zone.
Most of the fighting in the past week was centered in and around Jabaliya that was pounded by Israeli war jets and artillery. Residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters. The military also ordered the three main hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate patients and medical staff.
In Lebanon, authorities said Friday that 60 people were killed and 168 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah to 2,229 dead and 10,380 wounded.
Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, after a year of exchanges of fire. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas’ ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
It’s been a full year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.