Sept. 27 (UPI) — Israel launched a pair of deadly airstrikes against Hezbollah targets near Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday, including an attack early in the day that reportedly targeted the militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The day’s first series of strikes were “very accurate” and hit the main Hezbollah headquarters located underground beneath residential buildings in the predominantly Shiite Muslim Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Adm. Daniel Hagari.
“Moments ago, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a precise strike on the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah terror organization … taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can live in their homes, safely and securely,” he said in a video statement.
Witnesses said the city shook as six massive explosions rocked Beirut. Video posted on social media showed thick plumes of smoke rising from the targeted site and indicated Israel used ground-penetrating “bunker buster” missiles in the attack.
A source close to Hezbollah told UPI the massive Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs flattened six buildings.
Israeli media reported the attack was an attempt to kill Nasrallah, a key ally of Iran in the Middle East. An unnamed U.S. official told ABC News the Hezbollah leader and some of his associates were in Beirut making “a quick visit” when the strike took place but it remained unclear if he survived the attack.
“Hard to believe he [Nasrallah] got out of it alive,” an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post, which reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the strike before addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.
More than 25 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since Thursday night, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health told reporters.
Israeli warplanes struck Dahiyeh again hours later, early Saturday morning local time, after issuing warnings to evacuate as it targeted three individual buildings in the area.
“Hezbollah has over 150,000 rockets, meant to kill Israeli civilians, some are strategically placed beneath civilian populations,” Hagari said in an update. “We have called on Lebanese civilians in specific buildings in the Dahiyeh neighborhood to move away from areas being used by Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah responded to the Beirut strikes with a missile launch targeting the northern Israeli city of Safed while additional alarms were triggered in the region.