Israeli Radio: Source alerted authorities to meeting of top Hezbollah leaders in Beirut
According to the Israeli Radio, a “reliable intelligence source” provided information about the planned meeting of senior leaders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, leading to Friday’s deadly attack.
Among those killed in the attack on Dahiyeh in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital Beirut was senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
Hezbollah confirmed Aqil was killed hours after the Israeli military said it had “eliminated” him in an attack that also killed 13 other people.
US Middle East envoy says ‘nobody sheds a tear’ for slain Hezbollah commander
https://www.dia.mil/News-Features/Articles/Article-View/Article/566917/they-came-in-peace/
Brett McGurk said while the Biden administration isn’t sad about Israel’s killing of Ibrahim Aqil in a strike on a Beirut suburb on Friday, it has reservations over the move given the risk of regional escalation.
“Ibrahim Aqil, who was killed today, was responsible for the Beirut embassy bombing 40 years ago. So nobody sheds a tear for him,” McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, said at the Israeli-American Council’s conference in Washington.
“That said, we have disagreements with the Israelis on tactics and how you kind of measure escalation risk. It is a very concerning situation. I’m very confident that through diplomacy, through deterrence and other means, we’ll work our way out of it.”
McGurk added that while the US “fully stands” with Israel, it does not “think a war in Lebanon is the way to achieve the objective to return people to their homes”.
“We want a diplomatic settlement to the north. That is the objective, and that’s what we’re working towards,” he said.
Hezbollah names another commander killed in Israeli attack on Beirut
The Lebanese group has now named all 14 men killed in the strike, with Ahmad Mahmoud Wahabi, a senior Hezbollah commander and part of the elite Radwan Force’s top command, confirmed among the casualties.
Wahabi is the second senior member of the Radwan Force’s leadership, after Ibrahim Aqil, to be confirmed dead following the Israeli military’s strike on a building in a Beirut suburb on Friday.
As we reported earlier, Israeli media reports claimed that a “reliable intelligence source” had provided information to the Israeli military about the planned meeting of senior Radwan Force leaders, resulting in the attack.
