Second Israeli drone strike on Lebanon kills one more person
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says one person was killed in a drone strike targeting a vehicle travelling on a road between the border villages of Aita ash-Shaab and Rmeish.
Earlier today, another Israeli strike targeting a car south of Sidon also killed one person.
Israel claims both of those killed were Hezbollah members. There has not been any comment yet from the Lebanese group.
🚨السيارة المستهدفة على اوتوستراد الغازية في جنوب لبنان pic.twitter.com/0PzJC6lqHl
— bintjbeil.org (@bintjbeilnews) April 18, 2025
Translation: The targeted vehicle on the Ghaziyeh highway in southern Lebanon
Hezbollah pledges to retain arms until Israel ceases hostilities in southern Lebanon
A Hezbollah official says the group categorically refuses to discuss handing over its weapons to Lebanon’s army unless Israel withdraws completely from the south and stops its “aggression”.
“It is not a question of disarming,” Wafiq Safa said in an interview with Hezbollah’s Al Nur radio station. “What the president [Joseph Aoun] said in his inauguration speech is a defensive strategy.”
A ceasefire agreement in November ended more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, sparked by the war in Gaza, that included two months of open warfare.
Safa said Hezbollah had conveyed its position to Aoun, who on Tuesday said he sought “to make 2025 the year of restricting arms to the state” alone.
“Wouldn’t it be logical for Israel to first withdraw, then release the prisoners, then cease its aggression … and then we discuss a defensive strategy?” he asked in the interview.
US moving to have fewer than 1,000 troops in Syria in coming months
The Pentagon says the “consolidation” of US troops in Syria “reflects the significant steps” made to degrade the “appeal and operational capability” of ISIL (ISIS) in the region and around the world.
“As this consolidation takes place, consistent with President Trump’s commitment to peace through strength, US Central Command will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of ISIS in Syria,” the department said in a statement.
“We will also work closely with capable and willing Coalition partners to maintain pressure on ISIS and respond to any other terrorist threats that arise.”
The US started sending troops to Syria in 2014 with the stated objective of defeating ISIL, but American forces remained in the country after the group’s territorial defeat in 2017.
