Precautionary Measures at US Embassy, Protection Force Expected to Land in Beirut

Demonstrators burn a photograph of US President Donald Trump during a protest by few dozen people near the US embassy in Awkar, northeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Demonstrators burn a photograph of US President Donald Trump during a protest by few dozen people near the US embassy in Awkar, northeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
TT

Precautionary Measures at US Embassy, Protection Force Expected to Land in Beirut

Demonstrators burn a photograph of US President Donald Trump during a protest by few dozen people near the US embassy in Awkar, northeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Demonstrators burn a photograph of US President Donald Trump during a protest by few dozen people near the US embassy in Awkar, northeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The US embassy in Beirut has taken preventive security measures, pending the arrival of a US military force from Italy to bolster protection and counter Iranian threats.

A US military official announced that this force was preparing to head to Lebanon, following the killing of the commander of the Iranian Quds Force Qassem Soleimani, by a US airstrike near Baghdad International Airport at dawn on Friday.

Sources with knowledge of the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat that the forces could arrive by air or sea.

“In the first case, they can land in the Army’s Hamat base in the north of the country, where US soldiers are training the Lebanese Army on the use of American weapons; as for the second case, the forces could arrive by sea through the nearest point to the embassy’s headquarters in Awkar,” the sources said.

The military official said that the force stationed in Italy was put on alert as a step within a series of military measures to protect American interests in the Middle East region. He explained that the US Department of Defense might send between 130 and 700 soldiers to Beirut.

A Lebanese security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that other security measures were imposed on the embassy’s staff, “including the ambassador, diplomats, administrative and security personnel, in addition to Americans working or residing in Lebanon or the Lebanese who hold US citizenship.”

In parallel, the ambassador of a major country advised officials in Lebanon to overcome the obstacles that prevent the formation of a new government “because the coming days are full of dangerous developments,” official sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The sources noted that “urgent contacts between people in Beirut and officials in Tehran have not ceased… to find the best retaliatory response,” adding that the US target could be “at sea on a warship or the assassination of a US figure or an ambassador, or striking an embassy.”



Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
TT

Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets into northern and central Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they also treated two women in their 50s who were wounded in northern Israel.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.