BEIRUT: An Israeli strike Friday killed two Hezbollah fighters near the border, a source close to the Lebanese group and Israel’s military said, while drones broadcast anti-Hezbollah messages over south Lebanon.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.
But fears of all-out war have skyrocketed after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last week killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, just hours before the killing, blamed on Israel, of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Iran and Hezbollah have vowed revenge.
Hezbollah in separate statements Friday said two of its fighters were “martyred on the road to Jerusalem,” the phrase it uses to refer to fighters killed by Israeli fire.
A source close to the Iran-backed group, requesting anonymity, said the pair were killed “in an Israeli strike in Naqura.”
The Israeli army said in a statement that “two Hezbollah terrorists were identified exiting a military structure belonging” to the group in the Naqura area, adding that air forces “eliminated” the operatives.
Elsewhere in south Lebanon, residents and local journalists circulated footage they said showed an Israeli drone flying over the village of Kunin, broadcasting the message in Arabic that the cross-border violence “is thanks to Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah,” the group’s chief.
On Thursday evening, residents of the southern town of Bint Jbeil circulated similar videos in which the same message could be heard.
The source close to Hezbollah told AFP the videos were authentic, calling the messages “incitement” against the group.
Hezbollah said it launched a series of attacks on Israeli troops and positions on Friday, including “a volley of Katyusha rockets” and “Falaq rockets” targeting forces stationed in the border town of Kiryat Shmona, and “explosive-laden drones” at another base.
Some of the attacks came “in response to the assassinations and attacks that the Israeli enemy carried out,” Hezbollah said, also mentioning Naqura.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on several locations in south Lebanon on Friday.
Ten months of cross-border violence has killed some 561 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including at least 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
The violence has displaced more than 102,000 people in Lebanon, the International Organization for Migration said on Thursday, with tens of thousands also displaced across the border in Israel’s north.
Two Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon
https://arab.news/v38r6
Two Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon
- Hezbollah in separate statements Friday said two of its fighters were “martyred on the road to Jerusalem“
- The pair were killed “in an Israeli strike in Naqura“
Algeria president re-elected with 84.3 percent of votes: official results
ALGIERS: Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has won a second term with 84.3 percent of the votes in last week's election, according to final results announced Saturday by Omar Belhadj, president of the constitutional court.
Preliminary results issued by the North African country's electoral authority ANIE on Sunday gave the incumbent nearly 95 percent of the votes, prompting other candidates to challenge the tally.
Turkiye arrests suspected Istanbul church attack planner linked to Islamic State
- One Turkish citizen was killed by two Daesh gunmen at the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul in January
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) said the suspect, whom it identified as Viskhan Soltamatov, was believed to be the key figure behind the Jan. 28, 2024 attack. He was detained by MIT and police during a joint operation in Istanbul, the agency said.
MIT said Soltamatov was also believed to have supplied the weapon used in the assault.
One Turkish citizen was killed by two Daesh gunmen at the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul in January.
The church attack was orchestrated by IS-linked operatives from the group’s Khorasan Province (ISKP), a faction active in Afghanistan. In April, Turkiye had arrested 48 people believed to be linked to the attack.
Tunisian court orders electoral commission to reinstate presidential candidates
- The move by the Administrative Court comes amid growing political tension in the North African country
- Thousands of Tunisians took to the streets on Friday in the country’s biggest march in two years
TUNIS: Tunisia’s highest court on Saturday ordered the electoral commission to reinstate two candidates for a presidential poll in October, warning that failure to do so could jeopardize the legitimacy of the election.
The move by the Administrative Court comes amid growing political tension in the North African country and fears from the opposition and civil society groups about a rigged election that would lead to President Kais Saied winning a second term.
Thousands of Tunisians took to the streets on Friday in the country’s biggest march in two years, protesting against restrictions on freedoms and the undemocratic electoral climate.
The protesters chanted slogans including “Out with dictator Saied.”
Tensions mounted after the electoral commission earlier this month rejected the court’s decision to restore the candidacy of Abdellaif Mekki, Mondher Znaidi and Imed Daimi ahead of the Oct.6 race, citing alleged irregularities in their candidacy filings.
Major parties and civil society groups said that the commission, whose members were appointed by the president himself, had became a tool in the hands of the president against his rivals.
The head of the commission Farouk Bouasker has denied the accusations and said that “the commission is the only constitutional body entrusted with the integrity of the election.”
But the court said on Saturday that the commission is obligated to implement its decision and, if necessary, to review the electoral calendar. It is not clear if this means postponing the election or extending the campaign timeframe.
“Otherwise it would lead to an illegal situation that conflicts with the electoral law and the transparency of the electoral process,” it said.
The court asked Znaidi and Mekki to be included in the race, after they filed a new complaint against the commission’s decision. The third candidate, Daimi, has not filed a second appeal yet.
Saied was democratically elected in 2019, but then tightened his grip on power and began ruling by decree in 2021 in a move the opposition has described as a coup.
Salvagers launch new attempt to tow an oil tanker blown up by Yemen’s Houthi rebels
- EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion
DUBAI: A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a European Union naval mission said Saturday.
The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion.
The mission has “been actively involved in this complex endeavor, by creating a secure environment, which is necessary for the tugboats to conduct the towing operation,” the EU said.
A phone number for the mission rang unanswered Saturday.
The Sounion came under attack from the Houthis beginning Aug. 21. The vessel had been staffed by a crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, who were taken by a French destroyer to nearby Djibouti.
The Houthis later planted explosives aboard the ship and detonated them. That’s led to fears the ship’s 1 million barrels of crude oil could spill into the Red Sea.
The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. One of the sunken vessels, the Tutor, went down after the Houthis planted explosives aboard it and after its crew abandoned it due to an earlier attack, the rebel group later acknowledged.
Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
Syria’s Assad names ex-minister Jalali to form cabinet
CAIRO: Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree naming former communications minister Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali to form a new cabinet, state media said on Saturday.
The new cabinet will replace an outgoing administration which has been serving in a caretaker role since parliamentary elections in mid-July.
Al-Jalali served as communications minister from 2014-2016. He has been subject to EU sanctions.
since 2014 for his “responsibility for the regime’s violent repression of the civilian population.”
According to UN figures, at least 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 from an uprising against Assad’s rule.
