Key Hezbollah leader killed in strike, Israeli military says

[former9thward]

Source: Washington Post

A strike Friday on a suburb of Lebanon’s capital killed Ibrahim Aqil, a prominent Hezbollah leader, along with other senior commanders, Israel’s military spokesman Daniel Hagari said. Hezbollah did not immediately confirm whether Aqil, who is also wanted by the U.S. government for his role in abducting Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, was killed in the strike. The rare airstrike on Lebanon’s capital left 14 people dead and destroyed two buildings, Lebanese health and civil defense officials said, escalating a days-long Israeli assault on Hezbollah amid fears of all-out war. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah vowed retaliation Thursday against Israel for detonations of electronic devices that killed at least 37 people this week and left thousands injured.

Aqil is a Hezbollah leader who sits on the group’s military council and has led Hezbollah’s Operations Unit for two decades, the IDF said. Hezbollah did not confirm that any of the group’s leaders were killed in Friday’s strike.

Aqil is also wanted by the U.S. government and has been designated a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.” The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program announced a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the “identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction” of Aqil.

The State Department said Aqil was a “principal member” of the Hezbollah terrorist Islamic Jihad Organization that claimed the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, as well as the U.S. Marine Corps barracks bombing in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel. He also “directed” the abduction of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s, it added.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/20/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-hamas-war-news-gaza-palestine/

---

I tried to use the archive link to get past the paywall but I could not get it to work.