Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut, sources tell Reuters

A top Hezbollah commander has been killed in an Israeli strike in the suburbs of Lebanon’s capital of Beirut on Friday, two security sources have told the Reuters news agency. 

Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s operations commander, was killed in a strike that killed three people and wounded 17 others, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

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One of the security sources said he was killed alongside members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit as they were holding a meeting.

It comes as fighting between Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel has intensified in the past few days after 37 people were killed when pagers and radios across Lebanon blew up in two separate attacks.

Aqil has served as the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and Jihad Council, the group’s highest military body.

The US State Department has sanctioned him for his alleged role in carrying out the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people.

It had been offering a reward of $7m (£5.3m) for information about Aqil.

The US said he was the “principal member” of the group that bombed the American embassy in 1983, and the US Marine barracks in the same year, killing 241 US personnel.

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