KABUL (SW) – Lebanon has announced three days of mourning after a huge Israeli air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs the previous day killed the Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the official mourning would start on Monday, with flags to fly at half-mast on public buildings, a statement said.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, in a televised briefing, called Nasrallah “one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time”.
A Lebanese security source said an Israeli strike on Saturday targeted a warehouse near Beirut airport, Lebanon’s only international passenger facility.
“An Israeli strike targeted a warehouse in the vicinity of the airport,” the source said.
Israeli forces continued to pound Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold into Saturday, sending panicked families fleeing.
Middle East expert James Dorsey described Friday’s attack as “very sophisticated”, adding it “demonstrates not only significant technological capacity but just how deeply Israel has penetrated Hezbollah”, reported AFP.
Iran said a senior member of its Revolutionary Guard Corps was also killed in the same strike. A source close to Hezbollah said the group’s top commander in south Lebanon, Ali Karake, had also died.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported General Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the Guards’ operations, died in the strike that killed Nasrallah.
US President Joe Biden called the killing of Nasrallah “a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese civilians.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Israel’s recent attacks in Lebanon as part of what he called an Israeli policy of “genocide, occupation, and invasion”, urging the UN Security Council and other bodies to stop Israel.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said Nasrallah’s killing would strengthen their determination to confront their Israeli foes.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Saturday he was “gravely concerned” by the “dramatic escalation” seen in Lebanon in the past day as Israel targets Hezbollah in the capital Beirut, a UN spokesperson said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned the situation in Lebanon is extremely dangerous and that the entire region could slip further into an “absolute spiral of violence”.
“The situation poses a serious threat to stability in the region, and the stability of Lebanon, and this never serves the security and interests of Israel,” Baerbock wrote on X.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released a statement where it strongly condemns Israel’s killing of Nasrallah and calls on Israel to stop hostilities in Lebanon.
“This forceful action is fraught with even greater dramatic consequences for Lebanon and the entire Middle East,” the statement said.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the UN General Assembly he is concerned “by the now almost commonplace practice of political killings”
