Top Hezbollah commander killed in airstrike
Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, has been killed in a targeted strike in Beirut, Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Friday.
Hezbollah released a statement several hours later, confirming Aqil’s death.
The US blamed Aqil for the April 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people, and placed a $7 million bounty on his head in 2019.
“Air Force fighter jets targeted the Beirut area and killed Ibrahim Aqil, the head of the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s operations team, the acting commander of the unit Radwan and the commander of the ‘Galile Conquest Plan,’” the IDF said in a statement.
Several of Radwan’s top officers were also “eliminated” alongside Aqil, the IDF said. The Israeli military said Aqil and his unit were plotting a raid on Galilee along the same lines as Hezbollah’s October 7 attack from Gaza.
At least three people were killed and 17 wounded in the bombing, two Israeli security sources told Axios on Friday. Saudi TV outlet Al-Arabiya reported that Aqil was killed in the Israeli strike. Hezbollah has not confirmed his death.
According to the IDF, Aqil has been the head of Hezbollah’s operations since 2004, and was responsible for several attacks on Israel. The Israeli military said it would “continue to act to undermine the capabilities of and damage the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”
Israel intensified air and artillery strikes on Lebanon since Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “new phase in the war” against Hezbollah on Wednesday. Earlier this week, Israel claimed to have remotely activated hundreds of pagers and other communications devices in Hezbollah hands, killing at least 37 people and injuring an estimated 3,000, including children.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has described the attack as a “massacre” and “a declaration of war,” accusing Israel of “sheer terrorism” and “war crimes” that crossed “all restrictions and red lines.”
