The airstrike comes a few days after the spectacular attack that targeted Hezbollah’s transmission devices. This Friday, September 20, an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut left at least eight dead and 59 wounded according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Among the victims was the head of the Al-Radwan force, the elite unit of the pro-Iranian Lebanese formation.
“The Israeli strike targeted the head of the Al-Radwan force, Ibrahim Aqil, who was killed,” announced a source close to Hezbollah. This official was the military number two of the powerful Islamist formation. The military leader Fouad Chokr had been killed in a similar strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, on July 30.
A leader wanted by the United States
Ibrahim Aqil, alias Tahsin, was wanted by the United States for his role in the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and of U.S. Marines in October 1983, which killed 241 servicemen.
The head of Hezbollah’s Al-Radwan force, Ibrahim Aqil.
© / US State Department
Hezbollah’s al-Manar channel broadcast live footage from the scene of the attack, showing a collapsed building and ambulances rushing to the scene to carry wounded people on stretchers.
The official Lebanese news agency (ANI) said that “an enemy raid targeted an apartment in a residential building in the al-Jamous area, in the southern suburbs.” The Israeli army announced on Friday that it had carried out a “targeted strike” on Beirut without specifying the nature of the strike or the means used.
This is the third strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut claimed or attributed to Israel since Hezbollah opened the southern Lebanese front against Israel on October 8, “in support” of the Palestinian Hamas, in its war against Israel in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army announced on Friday that about 140 rockets had been fired from Lebanon towards Israel by midday. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on six Israeli military sites.