Israel targets senior Hezbollah official in first strike on Beirut in months
Lebanon: The Israeli army said it killed senior Hezbollah militant Haytham Tabtabai in an attack in Beirut on Sunday (Monday AEDT).
In its statement, the army identified Tabtabai as the chief of staff of the Iran-backed militant group. Hezbollah did not immediately comment. Tabtabai led Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit.
Security officers gather near destroyed vehicles in the area hit by an Israeli attack on an apartment building in Dahiyeh on Sunday.Credit: access point
In 2016, the United States designated Tabtabai as a terrorist, describing him as a military leader who led Hezbollah’s special forces in Syria and Yemen, and offered up to US$5 million ($7.7 million) for information about him.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said five people were killed and 25 injured in the attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah said the attack, which was launched almost a year after the end of the Israel-Hezbollah war and almost a year after the ceasefire, was initiated by Pope Benedict XIV. He said there was a danger of attacks escalating just days before Leo was due to visit Lebanon on his first foreign trip.
Civil Defense officers are investigating the scene of the attack.Credit: access point
“We will continue to act forcefully to prevent any threat to the inhabitants of the north and the state of Israel,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Government spokesman Shosh Bedrosyan did not say whether Israel informed the United States before the attack, saying only that “Israel made decisions independently.”
Israel did not issue any evacuation warning before the attack. Bedrosyan said that the Hezbollah chief of staff “led the strengthening and arming of the terrorist organization.”
Mahmoud Kamati, deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, told reporters that a senior militant may have been killed but did not give details.
