Washington intelligence source links Tel Aviv to deadly terrorist attacks walkie-talkies
▲ Israeli bombing of Beirut’s southern suburbs, aimed at killing an Islamist commander, left at least 14 dead and 66 wounded yesterday. In the image, volunteers rescue a survivor.Afp Photo
Tom Watling
The Independent
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, September 21, 2024, p. 17
Beirut. Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an attack in Beirut, raising fears of an all-out war on the border between Israel and Lebanon.
The Israeli military said Ibrahim Aqi Aqil, a top Hezbollah corpsman and acting commander of the elite Radwan force, was killed along with other commanders in the unit.
Lebanese health officials said at least 14 people were killed and 66 wounded in the attack that destroyed several apartment buildings.
The attack dealt another blow to Hezbollah, after it suffered an unprecedented attack earlier this week in which beepers and portable radios used by its members exploded, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 3,000. There is a widespread belief that the attack was carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Another Israeli bombing in Beirut last July killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr. Another attack in January also targeted senior Hezbollah officials.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Aqil was involved in two Hezbollah bombings, one at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and another at a U.S. Marine barracks, that killed more than 300 people. Last year, Washington offered a $7 million international reward for information leading to his location, arrest or prosecution.
Thick smoke could be seen rising over the southern part of the city late last night, while video footage showed dozens of destroyed cars and debris littering the street, along with several high-rise buildings destroyed.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said he was not aware of any notification from Tel Aviv to Washington before the Beirut attack, adding that American citizens had been given strict warning not to travel to Lebanon, or to leave the country if they were already there. Britain has made the same call. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy chaired a meeting yesterday to discuss preparations for evacuating American citizens from Lebanon if necessary.
War is not inevitableKirby said, and we will continue to do everything we can to try to prevent it..
The airstrike in Beirut, which killed its elite commander, came hours after Hezbollah launched some 140 rockets toward northern Israel. The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed Tuesday to retaliate against Israel for bombings of communications equipment.
The Islamist group, however, said yesterday’s rocket fire was in retaliation for Israeli attacks on villages and homes in southern Lebanon, not for the two previous days of attacks.
The Israeli military said the rockets hit its territory in three waves on Friday afternoon, hitting different sites along the border with Lebanon.
Some 20 missiles were aimed at occupied areas of the Golan Heights, as well as at the Israeli towns of Safed and Upper Galilee; some were intercepted.
They said fire brigades were working to extinguish fires caused by pieces of burning debris that fell to the ground in several places, without confirming whether any missiles hit their targets or caused casualties. Another 20 Hezbollah missiles were fired toward the Meron and Netua areas, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the Golan Heights. Most fell in open areas, the military said, adding that no injuries were reported.
Hezbollah said its recent rocket attacks Katyusha They targeted several locations along the border, including air bases, as well as the headquarters of an Israeli armored brigade, which they claimed to have hit for the first time.
Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hezbollah erupted a day after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack, killing about 1,000 people and taking 251 hostages; a near-daily exchange of fire across the border began, but tensions have grown in recent weeks.
Hezbollah says it will not stop firing across the border until Israel halts its air and ground offensive in Gaza aimed at rooting out Hamas operatives.
Meanwhile, hospitals in Lebanon were flooded with dead and wounded this week, after beepers and walkie-talkies electronic devices used by Hezbollah exploded in unison.
The Lebanese Islamist group and the local government – which are separate authorities – blamed Israel for the attacks. High-level sources have pointed to Mossad, Israel’s international spy agency, as the author of an operation that must have taken months to prepare.
A Lebanese source familiar with the case of the walkie-talkies that exploded on Wednesday suggested that the devices were laced with a highly explosive compound known as PETN, which would have been attached to the battery compartment, making them extremely difficult to detect.
A second security source told Reuters the pagers that exploded a day earlier also contained explosives.
A US intelligence source later told reporters: ABC News that Israel had achieved intervene the supply chain of equipment destined for Hezbollah in order to manipulate the assembly of the beepers.
© The Independent
Translation: Jorge Anaya