[IsraelTimes] Ibrahim Aqil was wanted by US for attacks that killed dozens; 10 more of terror group’s military leadership also killed in the rare Beirut strike, as they met underground, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that it killed Hezbollah’s top military commander and at least 10 other senior commanders in a rare Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM! ...
targeting the terror group’s stronghold in Beirut, as the sides appeared closer than ever to entering a full-fledged war.
The IDF said the most prominent target of its airstrike, Ibrahim Aqil, was the head of Hezbollah’s military operations, the acting commander of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, and was overseeing a planned operation to invade the Galilee.
Aqil was also the most senior military member of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body, after Israel’s liquidation of Fuad Shukr in a strike in Beirut in July.
Hezbollah released a statement late Friday confirming Aqil’s death, saying "one of its great leaders" was killed "on the road to Jerusalem," the phrase it uses to refer to fighters killed by Israel. The statement also said the "great jihadist leader" had "joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, achievements, and victories."
Aqil had also been wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 bombings of the American Embassy in Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
and the US Marines barracks in Beirut.
In a curt statement issued on Friday evening, soon after the start of Shabbat, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves."
Before and after the strike targeting Aqil, Hezbollah fired some 200 rockets Friday at the northern Galilee and the Golan Heights. No casualties were reported following the barrages, which happened as the IDF alerted residents in the area to remain close to bomb shelters.
GATHERED UNDERGROUND, BELOW RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
Alongside Aqil, the top brass of Hezbollah’s operations array and the leadership of the Radwan Force were killed in the strike, according to the military.
"They gathered underground, under a residential building, in the heart of the Dahiyeh, while using civilians as a human shield. They met to coordinate terror activities against Israeli civilians," IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a presser.
Hagari said that at least 10 members of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force and operations array were killed in the strike, which Lebanese media reported was carried out by an Israeli F-35 fighter jet using two missiles.
An Axios report quoted an Israeli official saying that some 20 Radwan Force commanders were killed.
Twenty big turbans kaboomed underground. It’s as if the IDF somehow had an electronic beacon guiding the missile… BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!! According to figures from Lebanon’s health ministry, 14 people were killed and 66 were maimed.
Correction. Eighty kaboomed, 20 toes up, more or less. The ministry said the strike leveled the apartment building in the Dahiyeh area of south Beirut where Israel said Aqil and the other Hezbollah leaders had been meeting below ground.
The strike inflicted another blow to Hezbollah after the terror group suffered a pair of unprecedented attacks earlier this week in which pagers and walkie-talkies
…and other devices worked up by Unit 8200… used by its members went kaboom! , killing 37 people and wounding thousands. That attack was widely believed to have also been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Hezbollah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
vowed on Thursday that Israel would face retribution for the blasts. The terror group did not immediately respond to Friday’s strike.
"Aqil and the Radwan Force commanders who we attacked are the commanders who drew up and led the Hezbollah terror group’s plan, to be carried out on the day the order was given, to attack into the northern territory of the State of Israel — what they called ’The plan to conquer the Galilee,’" Hagari said at his presser on Friday evening.
In this planned invasion, "Hezbollah intended to raid Israeli territory, occupy the communities of the Galilee, and murder and kidnap Israeli citizens — similar to what Hamas
 ..always the voice of sweet reason...
did on October 7," Hagari continued.
"The commanders who we eliminated today" had been overseeing attacks on Israeli citizens since October 8, and planned to carry out more such attacks," he added, calling Aqil "a terrorist with a great deal of blood on his hands, responsible for the deaths of many civilians and innocents."
WANTED BY THE US
Aqil joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, and was also responsible for the terror group’s attacks outside of Lebanon, according to the IDF. The military said he participated in many attacks in other countries, including targeting civilians.
Since 2004, Aqil has been serving as the head of Hezbollah operations, responsible for the terror group’s bombing and anti-tank attacks on Israel, air defenses, and other aspects of the organization, the military said.
The IDF said Aqil was involved in an anti-tank guided missile attack against an army post near Avivim in 2019, a bombing attack at the Megiddo Junction last year, and several attempts by Hezbollah operatives to infiltrate into Israel amid the war.
The US had accused Aqil of a role in the Beirut truck bombings at the American embassy in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and a US Marine barracks six months later that killed 241 people. He was also wanted for directing the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.
The US had placed a $7 million bounty on Aqil’s head.
Following the strike, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi vowed that the military would reach anyone who threatens Israeli civilians.
"The Hezbollah commanders we eliminated today had been planning an ’October 7’ on the northern border for years. We reached them and we will reach anyone who threatens the security of the citizens of the State of Israel," Halevi said in remarks provided by the IDF.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that, "Even in the Dahiyeh in Beirut, we will continue to pursue our enemy in order to protect our citizens."
"The sequence of operations in the new phase [of the war] will continue until our goal is achieved: The safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," he added on X.
A THIRD STRIKE
Friday’s strike was just the third time Israel has targeted Beirut since the IDF began responding to cross-border fire from Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
In July, an Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed Hezbollah’s military chief Shukr, and before that in January, Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an IAF strike in the Lebanese capital.
Hezbollah has pledged to continue its fire until there is a ceasefire in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
. Most of the strikes by both sides have been contained to the border area, but have forced tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese to evacuate their homes.
While Israel has repeated for months that it would prefer a diplomatic solution that would allow its residents to return to their homes, it has said it would use military force if necessary.
The US has sought to broker a deal, which among other things would see Hezbollah retreat 10 kilometers away from the border, in line with UN Security Resolution 1701, which the terror group has long violated. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
it has acknowledged that the surest way to strike such an agreement will be by first reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, which has also remained elusive.
Still, US special envoy Amos Hochstein told Israeli leaders during a visit earlier this week that launching a war against Hezbollah isn’t any more likely to secure Israel the conditions it is seeking to return its 60,000 evacuated residents to their homes and argued that the sides will ultimately be pushed to agree to the same deal currently on the table after both suffering major losses.
US NOT TOLD IN ADVANCE
US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. This Is A Man That Does Not Seem Demented ...
said Friday that he is "working" on allowing people to return to their homes on this week’s Israeli-Hezbollah tensions.
Biden told news hounds at the start of a cabinet meeting that he wants to "make sure that the people in northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon are able to go back to their homes, to go back safely."
"The secretary of state, the secretary of defense, our whole team are working with the intelligence community to try to get that done. We’re going to keep at it until we get it done, but we’ve got a way to go," Biden said.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said he was unaware of any Israeli heads-up on Friday’s strike. He stressed that the US wasn’t involved and was still working to avoid further military escalation through a diplomatic arrangement.
An Israeli official told the Axios news site on Friday that Jerusalem had reached the conclusion that a diplomatic solution would not be possible without a military escalation first, indicating Jerusalem’s hope that this week’s strikes will coax Hezbollah into agreeing to terms that it has yet to accept.
"This is why we have been gradually taking our gloves off and increasing our attacks against Hezbollah," the Israeli official said.
Israel announced earlier this week that it was amending its war objectives — formulated after Hamas invaded southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, slaughtered some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages — to add the additional imperative to return displaced northern residents safely to their homes.
’INCREASING PRICE’
Speaking to troops on Wednesday, Gallant said: "Hezbollah will pay an increasing price" as Israel tries to "ensure the safe return" of its citizens to border areas. "We are at the start of a new phase in the war.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, delayed his scheduled departure to the United States, where he is due to address the UN General Assembly, by a day, from September 24 to September 25, with an official citing the situation on the northern front.
For his part, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of giving "no weight to any humanitarian, legal or moral considerations."
Earlier Friday, Hezbollah said it targeted at least six Israeli military bases with salvos of rockets after an overnight bombardment that people in south Lebanon described as among the fiercest so far.
Rocket sirens sounded in northern Israel’s Safed, Rosh Pina and numerous other nearby communities shortly after the strike.
The IDF said it responded to the rocket barrage by targeting a Hezbollah operative via dronezap in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila and having fighter jets strike buildings used by Hezbollah in Kafr Kila, as well as Aitaroun, Mays al-Jabal, Taybeh, Odaisseh and Yaroun.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 483 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 79 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.
Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread...
Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy operating in Iraq and Syria that is not directly affiliated with its Lebanese namesake, announced, the death of a member in an alleged Israeli airstrike near Damascus on Friday morning.
The terror group said in a statement that Abu Haidar al-Khafaji served as a security advisor in the Damascus area.
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...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival al-Khoei assassinated shortly after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling