Hezbollah Confirms Top Commander Killed in Israeli Strike in Beirut 

 A view shows the rubble of a damaged building, the day after an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon July 31, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows the rubble of a damaged building, the day after an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon July 31, 2024. (Reuters)
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Hezbollah Confirms Top Commander Killed in Israeli Strike in Beirut 

 A view shows the rubble of a damaged building, the day after an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon July 31, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows the rubble of a damaged building, the day after an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon July 31, 2024. (Reuters)

The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah confirmed Wednesday that Israel killed a top commander after a rare strike in Beirut. 

The Iran-backed group said earlier that Fouad Shukur was in the building during the attack on Tuesday, and they were searching for him in the rubble to determine his fate. 

Hezbollah’s announcement came after an overnight strike in Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Hamas and Iran blamed on Israel. 

Israel said late Tuesday that it had killed Shukur, who it said was behind the weekend rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 youths. The United States also blames Shukur for staging and planning a bombing of a Marine Corps barrack in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 American service members. 

The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least five civilians — two children and three women — died in the strike in the southern Beirut suburbs, known as Dahieh – a Hezbollah stronghold. 

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire since Oct. 8, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel and sparked the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. 

Though Hezbollah issued a rare denial of involvement in the rocket attack Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams, Israel holds the group responsible. "Hezbollah crossed a red line," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on the platform X shortly after Tuesday's strike. 

The two sides have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that was unlikely to escalate into full-on war. 

Lebanon's public health ministry said Tuesday's strike in a southern suburb of Beirut wounded 74 people, some of them seriously. The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. Bahman Hospital near the site of the blast called for blood donations. 

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the strike was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets. 

"The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area," Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told Al-Manar TV. "The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later." 

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli attack, saying it hit a few meters from one of the largest hospitals in the capital. 

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement, but minutes after the strike sent a photo of the prime minister with his national security adviser and other officials. 

The airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik — a crowded urban neighborhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations but which is also full of small shops and apartment buildings — damaged several buildings. 

The strike hit an apartment building near to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building and severely damaging one next to it. The hospital sustained minor damages, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass. 

Paramedics could be seen carrying several wounded people out of the damaged buildings. 

A resident of the suburb whose home is about 200 meters (yards) away said that dust from the explosion "covered everything," and that the glass in his son’s apartment was broken. 

"Then people went down on the streets," he said. "Everyone has family. They went to check on them. It was a lot of destruction." He spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern about his security at a tense moment. 

Talal Hatoum, a local official with the Shiite Amal Movement, Hezbollah’s key political ally in Lebanon, said Tuesday's attack marked a shift in the rules of engagement in the conflict because it caused a significant number of civilian casualties. 

The last time Israel targeted Beirut was in January, when an airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri. That strike was the first time Israel had hit Beirut since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. 

Israel had been expected to retaliate for the strike in Majdal Shams, but diplomats had said in recent days that they expected the response to stay within the boundaries of the ongoing low-level conflict between Hezbollah and Israel without provoking all-out war. 

Many of them had not expected that Israel would hit Beirut, which might elicit a strike by Hezbollah on a major population center in Israel. 



PMF Demands Immediate Withdrawal of US Forces from Iraq

Supporters and members of Iraq's PMF wave flags as they march in Baghdad to condemn a US air strike in the south of the capital that killed four members of the Hashed, on July 31, 2024. (AFP)
Supporters and members of Iraq's PMF wave flags as they march in Baghdad to condemn a US air strike in the south of the capital that killed four members of the Hashed, on July 31, 2024. (AFP)
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PMF Demands Immediate Withdrawal of US Forces from Iraq

Supporters and members of Iraq's PMF wave flags as they march in Baghdad to condemn a US air strike in the south of the capital that killed four members of the Hashed, on July 31, 2024. (AFP)
Supporters and members of Iraq's PMF wave flags as they march in Baghdad to condemn a US air strike in the south of the capital that killed four members of the Hashed, on July 31, 2024. (AFP)

The Iran-backed Popular Mobilizations Forces (PMF) demanded on Wednesday the "immediate" withdrawal of American forces from Iraq in wake of the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the US strike on Iraqi armed factions south of Baghdad.

Iraqi police and medical sources said the strike inside a base south of Baghdad used by the PMF killed four members of the group that contains several Iran-aligned armed militias, and wounded four others.

US officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the United States carried out an airstrike in Musayib, located in Babil province, but did not provide more details on the location.

The officials added that the strike targeted militants that the US deemed were looking to launch drones and posed a threat to US and coalition forces. The officials did not comment on any casualties.

"This action underscores the United States' commitment to the safety and security of our personnel," one of the officials said.

Iraq condemned the strike saying the US-led military coalition committed a "heinous crime" by targeting security sites south of Baghdad and said the attacks were a serious violation of the coalition's mission and mandate, an Iraqi military spokesman said in a statement.

In a statement on Wednesday, the PMF said the US attack was a "hostile act" against the forces, "demanding that we do what is necessary in our national duty to defend Iraq’s dignity and sovereignty."

It also called for a decision to be taken on the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

Haniyeh’s assassination, it went on to say, shows that "enemies are plotting to ignite the region and expand the war" on Gaza.

It stressed that Haniyeh’s "blood won’t go to waste," adding that he had dedicated his life to the liberation of Palestine.

"The cowardly assassination will only make the honorable resistance fighters only more determined to continue their jihad," it added.

‘Gates of Hell’

Meanwhile, leader of the pro-Iran Nujaba movement Akram al-Kaabi said: "The Americans and Zionists have opened the gates of Hell after Haniyeh’s assassination, the reckless strike on the southern Beirut suburbs, and the deceitful American strike against fighters in Iraq."

"These assassinations will make the resistance more determined," he said in a post on the X platform.

The Nujaba and other pro-Iran factions had been launching attacks against American forces in Iraq in wake of the eruption of the war on Gaza. The Nujaba announced a truce in February, before recently saying that it was ending it.

Kaabi had described the truce at the time as "the calm before the storm."

Govt recommendations

Former Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi warned that attacks on the PMF "undermine relations between Washington and Baghdad."

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani chaired on Wednesday a meeting of military and security leaderships.

A government statement said he was briefed on the security developments and the possible fallout of the regional escalation.

Sudani made a number of recommendations to the forces, added the statement without elaborating.