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Israel Warns it Can Return Lebanon to 'Stone Age' But Does Not Want War With Hezbollah

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin welcomes Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon in Washington, US, June 25, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin welcomes Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon in Washington, US, June 25, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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Israel Warns it Can Return Lebanon to 'Stone Age' But Does Not Want War With Hezbollah

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin welcomes Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon in Washington, US, June 25, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin welcomes Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon in Washington, US, June 25, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned during a visit to Washington that Israel's military is capable of taking Lebanon "back to the Stone Age" in any war with Hezbollah militants but insisted his government prefers a diplomatic solution on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Speaking to reporters, Gallant also said he discussed with senior US officials his "day after" proposals for governance of post-war Gaza that would include local Palestinians, regional partners and the US, but that it would be "a long and complex process."
Cross-border strains between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been escalating in recent weeks, stoking fears of an all-out Israel-Hezbollah war.
More than eight months of cross-border fire between the two sides have left at least 481 people dead in Lebanon, mostly fighters, but also including 94 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

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Five ISIS Bombs Found Hidden in Iconic Mosul Mosque in Iraq

(FILES) This picture taken on January 18, 2022 shows renovations at the al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)
(FILES) This picture taken on January 18, 2022 shows renovations at the al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)
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Five ISIS Bombs Found Hidden in Iconic Mosul Mosque in Iraq

(FILES) This picture taken on January 18, 2022 shows renovations at the al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)
(FILES) This picture taken on January 18, 2022 shows renovations at the al-Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. (Photo by Zaid AL-OBEIDI / AFP)

A United Nations agency said it has discovered five bombs in a wall of Mosul's iconic Al-Nuri mosque, planted years ago by ISIS militants, during restoration work in the northern Iraqi city.

Five "large-scale explosive devices, designed to trigger a massive destruction of the site," were found in the southern wall of the prayer hall on Tuesday by the UNESCO team working at the site, a representative for the agency told AFP late Friday.

Mosul's Al-Nuri mosque and the adjacent leaning minaret nicknamed Al-Hadba or the "hunchback", which dates from the 12th century, were destroyed during the battle to retake the city from ISIS.

Iraq's army accused ISIS, which occupied Mosul for three years, of planting explosives at the site and blowing it up.

UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, has been working to restore the mosque and other architectural heritage sites in the city, much of it reduced to rubble in the battle to retake it in 2017.

"The Iraqi armed forces immediately secured the area and the situation is now fully under control," UNESCO added.

One bomb was removed, but four other 1.5-kilogram devices "remain connected to each other" and are expected to be cleared in the coming days, it said.

"These explosive devices were hidden inside a wall, which was specially rebuilt around them: it explains why they could not be discovered when the site was cleared by Iraqi forces" in 2020, the agency said.

Iraqi General Tahseen al-Khafaji, spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command of various Iraqi forces, confirmed the discovery of "several explosive devices from ISIS militants in Al-Nuri mosque."

He said provincial deminers requested help from the Defense Ministry in Baghdad to defuse the remaining munitions because of their "complex manufacturing".

Construction work has been suspended at the site until the bombs are removed.

It was from Al-Nuri mosque that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the then-leader of ISIS, proclaimed the establishment of the group's "caliphate" in July 2014.