Israeli Airstrikes in Lebanon Kill at Least 7, Including a Child, State Media Report

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila on August 21, 2024.(AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila on August 21, 2024.(AFP)
TT

Israeli Airstrikes in Lebanon Kill at Least 7, Including a Child, State Media Report

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila on August 21, 2024.(AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila on August 21, 2024.(AFP)

Five Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday killed at least eight people, including a child and several Hezbollah fighters, state media reported.

A drone strike in the town of Aita al-Jabal killed a 7-year-old child along with one other person, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The Israeli military said the strike killed Mohammad Mahmoud Najem, an operative in Hezbollah’s drone and rocket unit.

Iran-backed Hezbollah later confirmed Najem’s death and also announced the deaths of four other members Friday.

Photographs from the scene showed a burned-out small pickup truck.

The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has been clashing nearly daily with Israeli forces in the border region for more than 10 months. The clashes have killed more than 500 people in Lebanon — most of them fighters but including more than 100 civilians and noncombatants — and 23 soldiers and 26 civilians in Israel.



Iraq's Population Reaches 45.4 Million in First Census in over 30 Years

Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
TT

Iraq's Population Reaches 45.4 Million in First Census in over 30 Years

Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)

Iraq's population has risen to 45.4 million, according to preliminary results from a national census, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said on Monday.
The census, conducted on Nov. 20, was Iraq's first nationwide survey in more than three decades, marking a crucial step for future planning and development.
Prior to the census, the planning ministry estimated the population at 43 million.
The last census, conducted in 1997, did not include the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which has been under Kurdish administration since the 1991 Gulf War.
It counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north, according to official statistics.