BEIRUT (AP) — Israel’s air force carried out an airstrike on a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military said.
It was not immediately clear who was the target of the airstrike on the suburb of Choueifat and videos from the area showed white smoke billowing from a residential neighborhood. The area is close to Beriut’s international airport.
The strike came amid an escalation in southern Lebanon where Israeli troops have crossed the Litani River over the past days and issued a warning for residents to leave much of the area.
A strike on a Beirut suburb in early May killed a military official with Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military early Thursday pounded Lebanon's fourth-largest city, killing at least 14 people across the south of the country in its ongoing military escalation against the Hezbollah group ahead of crucial talks in Washington.
Among those killed in the flurry of strikes were five women and children and a Lebanese soldier. Dozens of others were wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency.
An Israeli soldier meanwhile was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in northern Israel, the Israeli military said.
The intensification comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion in the Israeli military's attacks in Lebanon, apparently sparked by Hezbollah's use of fiber-optic exploding drones that have struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel's northern border towns.
Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks on Friday in the U.S. capital. The talks have extended a nominal ceasefire that went into effect April 17, although the attacks have since intensified, while sparing the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Source: WPLG
