2 days ago
Israeli drone strike blows up car near Beirut
Israel attacked a busy road near Beirut on Thursday, blowing up a car and killing an alleged arms smuggler.
CCTV footage showed the moment the vehicle exploded in a ball of flame, while cars passed the scene of the explosion on the Khaldeh road. Authorities in Lebanon said one person was killed and three were injured in the attack on Beirut's southern suburbs.
The Israeli military said it had 'struck and eliminated a terrorist responsible for smuggling weapons and advancing terror attacks against Israeli civilians and troops". It claimed the target worked on behalf of Iran 's Quds Force, a foreign operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The attack is the latest Israeli strike to breach a ceasefire in Lebanon that followed a 14-month conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah, including an intensive two-month Israeli air campaign. It ended in November under a US-brokered truce, leaving Lebanon with huge reconstruction needs.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah is required to withdraw all military equipment and fighters from south of the Litani River, which lies 30km from the Lebanon-Israel border.
Israel is supposed to fully withdraw from positions it has occupied since launching a ground invasion in October. The Lebanese government has accused Israel of breaching the truce more than 3,000 times. It says Hezbollah has abided by its commitments.
Israel separately said its military hit "weapons storage facilities, military structures, and terrorist infrastructure" belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where breaches of the ceasefire have been common. It said "the presence of weapons and Hezbollah's activity constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon".
Lebanon has recently come under increasing US pressure to include Hezbollah's disarmament in its official government agenda as soon as possible. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said in a televised speech on Thursday the group would 'never accept surrendering our weapons to the Israeli enemy' nor 'accept surrendering our land'.
Hezbollah saw its power dramatically diminished and most of its senior leaders killed in the war with Israel. But it is still believed to possess medium and long-range missiles, and it continues to command a broad Shiite support base.
