Israel says top leader Ali Karaki, other Hezbollah commanders also killed; Iran says senior member of Revolutionary Guard Corps killed in same strike
\n Lebanon
\nLebanon\u2019s Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed and vowed to continue the battle against Israel.
\nIsrael said earlier that it had killed the Hezbollah leader in an airstrike in Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs a day earlier, in what would be a devastating blow to the group as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks.
\nNasrallah\u2019s death marks a major blow not only to Hezbollah but also to its alleged backers in Iran. He was a leading figure in the Tehran-backed \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d, helping to project Iranian influence across the Middle East.
\nIran, which arms and finances Hezbollah, said a senior member of its Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in the same strike. IRNA news agency reported General Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the Guards\u2019 operations, died in the strike that killed Nasrallah.
\n\u201cSayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,\u201d Hezbollah said in a statement.
\nIt said he was killed with other group members \u201cfollowing the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs\u201d of Beirut.
\nAFP journalists heard a passer-by scream \u201cOh my God!\u201d, and women weeping in the streets after Hezbollah announced the news.
\nHezbollah said it would continue its battle against Israel \u201cin support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people\u201d.
\nIt did not say how Nasrallah was killed.
\nHezbollah\u2019s Al-Manar TV began airing verses from the Holy Quran after his death was announced.
\nThe Israeli military said in a statement that Nasrallah was eliminated in a \u201ctargeted strike\u201d on the group\u2019s underground headquarters under a residential building in Dahiyeh \u2014 a Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut.
\nIt said he was killed along with another top Hezbollah leader \u2014 Ali Karaki \u2014 and other commanders.
\n\u201cThe strike was conducted while Hezbollah\u2019s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel,\u201d it claimed.
\nThe Israeli military \u201celiminated [\u2026] Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation\u201d, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a statement on X.
\n\u201cHassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world,\u201d the Israeli military said in a post on X on Saturday.
\nLate on Friday, a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was not reachable. In Tehran, posters of Nasrallah were erected bearing the slogan \u201cHezbollah is alive\u201d.
\nIran\u2019s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani posted on X that Nasrallah\u2019s \u201csacred goal will be realised in the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing\u201d.
\nEarlier, Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned what he called Israel\u2019s \u201cshort-sighted and stupid policy\u201d, without referring to Nasrallah\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n
Israeli airstrikes shake Beirut; more Hezbollah commanders killed
\nIsrael\u2019s five hours of continuous strikes on Beirut early on Saturday followed Friday\u2019s attack, by far the most powerful by Israel on the city during the conflict with Hezbollah that has played out in parallel to the Gaza conflict for nearly a year.
\nReuters journalists heard more than 20 airstrikes in Beirut before dawn on Saturday and more after sunrise. Smoke could be seen rising over the city\u2019s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh.
\nFriday\u2019s airstrike on Dahiyeh shook Beirut. A security source in Lebanon said the attack \u2014 a quick succession of massively powerful blasts \u2014 had left a crater at least 20 meters deep.
\nThousands of people have fled the area since Friday\u2019s attack, congregating in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.
\n\u201cThey want to destroy Dahiyeh, they want to destroy all of us,\u201d said Sari, a man in his 30s who gave only his first name, referring to the suburb he had fled after an Israeli evacuation order.
\nNearby, the newly displaced in Beirut\u2019s Martyrs Square rolled mats onto the ground to try to sleep.
\nThe Israeli military said a missile fired at central Israel on Saturday had struck an open area. Earlier, the military said about 10 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory and that some had been intercepted.
\nThe Israeli military also said it was striking Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley, a region of eastern Lebanon at the Syrian border that it has pounded over the last week.
\nThe military said in a statement that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah\u2019s missile unit, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy Hossein Ahmed Ismail.
\nIsrael\u2019s attacks in Lebanon have widened to new areas this week. On Saturday, an airstrike hit the Lebanese mountain town of Bhamdoun, southeast of Beirut, Lebanese lawmaker for the area Mark Daou told Reuters.
\nThe mayor of Bhamdoun, Walid Khayrallah, told Reuters that the strike hit a large empty lot and did not cause any casualties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel says top leader Ali Karaki, other Hezbollah commanders also killed; Iran says senior member of Revolutionary Guard Corps killed in same strike Lebanon Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed and vowed to continue the battle against Israel. Israel said earlier that it had killed the Hezbollah leader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-434104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n