Beirut/Jerusalem: Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, two security sources in Lebanon said, sharply escalating the year-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group.
The target was Hezbollah's operations commander Ibrahim Aqil, who serves on the group's top military body, two security sources in Lebanon and Israeli Army Radio said. Aqil was killed alongside members of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Unit as they were holding a meeting, one of the security sources said.
The strike killed eight people and wounded 59 others, Lebanon's health ministry said, in a preliminary toll. The strike inflicted another blow on Hezbollah after the group suffered an unprecedented attack earlier this week in which pagers and walkie talkies used by its members exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands. That attack was widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed or denied its involvement.
The civil defence said its rescue teams were searching for people under the rubble of two buildings hit in Friday's strike. The Israeli military said it had conducted a "targeted strike" in Beirut, without giving further details.
It marks the second time in less than two months that Israel has targeted a top Hezbollah military commander in Beirut. In July, an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, the group's top military commander.
Aqil has a $7 million bounty on his head from the United States over his link to the deadly bombing of Marines in Lebanon in 1983, according to the US State Department website.