In First, Lebanese Resistance Brigades Join Military Operations against Israel in the South

Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
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In First, Lebanese Resistance Brigades Join Military Operations against Israel in the South

Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Lebanese Resistance Brigades, a Lebanese paramilitary group affiliated with Hezbollah, claimed responsibility on Saturday for a military operation against Israel in southern Lebanon.
The announcement is the first for the group, founded by Hezbollah in 1997, since the Israeli war on Gaza. The group includes volunteer fighters from different sects in Lebanon.
According to a statement issued by the Brigades on Friday, it began its engagement in the war by shelling with rockets the Israeli 'Rweisat al-Qarn' site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms, scoring a “direct hit”, it said.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading near daily exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last year.
Hezbollah says it is striking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, another Iran-allied group that ignited the war in Gaza with its Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. The group’s leadership says it will stop its attacks once there is a cease-fire in Gaza, and that while it does not want war, it is ready for one.
Diplomatic talks to end the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah have failed so far.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government rejected Israel’s demands to evacuate the border area in Lebanon from Hezbollah fighters.
The parliamentary bloc of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, made that clear by welcoming any international efforts aiming at quelling Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The bloc affirmed “rejection of discussions regarding the establishment of buffer zones on Lebanon’s sovereign territory, whether in southern Lebanon or in its north."
Meanwhile cross-border fire continues in south Lebanon. A Lebanese army vehicle of type 'Humvee' came under Israeli machine gun fire from the village of Ghajar near Wazzani.
Reports said the vehicle was directly hit with four bullets. However, the personnel miraculously escaped unharmed from this attack.



Hemedti Admits Forces Withdrew from Sudan Capital

A picture shows burnt vehicles in a southern neighbourhood of Khartoum on March 29, 2025, after the military recaptured the capital. (Photo by AFP)
A picture shows burnt vehicles in a southern neighbourhood of Khartoum on March 29, 2025, after the military recaptured the capital. (Photo by AFP)
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Hemedti Admits Forces Withdrew from Sudan Capital

A picture shows burnt vehicles in a southern neighbourhood of Khartoum on March 29, 2025, after the military recaptured the capital. (Photo by AFP)
A picture shows burnt vehicles in a southern neighbourhood of Khartoum on March 29, 2025, after the military recaptured the capital. (Photo by AFP)

The head of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces admitted in a speech to fighters on Sunday that the group had withdrawn from the capital but pledged the RSF would return stronger to Khartoum.

"I confirm to you that we have indeed left Khartoum, but... we will return with even stronger determination," Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said in the speech, three days after the group said there would be "no retreat.”

It was Dagalo's first comment since the RSF were pushed back from most parts of Khartoum by the Sudanese army during a devastating war that has lasted two years.

Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, conceded in an audio message on Telegram that his forces left the capital last week as the army consolidated its gains.

Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ruled out any reconciliation with the RSF in a video statement on Saturday in which he vowed to crush the group.

"We will neither forgive, nor compromise, nor negotiate," he said, reaffirming the military's commitment to restoring national unity and stability.

Earlier on Saturday, the army said it had taken control of a major market in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, which had previously been used by the RSF to launch attacks during a devastating two-year-old war.

Burhan also said fighters who "repent to the truth" could still be amnestied if they lay down their arms, particularly those who are in rebel-held areas.