ROME: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday that he had not seen evidence that there was a Hezbollah bunker filled with cash built under a hospital in Beirut, adding that Washington would continue to work with Israel to get better insights.
Israel’s military said that Hezbollah has stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker built under a hospital in Beirut, adding that it would not strike the facility as it keeps up attacks against the group’s financial assets.
“We have not seen evidence of that at this moment. But, you know, we will continue to collaborate with our Israeli counterparts to gain better fidelity on exactly what they are looking at,” Austin told reporters in Rome.
Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker with the Shiite Amal Movement party and the director of the hospital in question, Al-Sahel, has told Reuters that Israel was making false and slanderous claims and called on the Lebanese Army to visit and show it had only operating rooms, patients and a morgue.
In a televised statement on Monday, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel last month, had built the bunker which was designed for lengthy stays.
US has not seen evidence of Hezbollah cash bunker under Beirut hospital, Pentagon chief says
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US has not seen evidence of Hezbollah cash bunker under Beirut hospital, Pentagon chief says
- “We will continue to collaborate with our Israeli counterparts to gain better fidelity on exactly what they are looking at,” Austin told reporters in Rome
- Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker and the director of Al-Sahel hospital has told Reuters that Israel was making false and slanderous claims
Syrian authorities arrest leader of terrorist cells in Lattakia
- Ali Aziz Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011
LONDON: Syrian authorities have arrested Ali Aziz Sbeira, a prominent leader of terrorist cells responsible for attacks on internal security checkpoints, the Syrian army and civilians during the country’s uprising against the former regime of Bashar Assad.
The Internal Security Directorate announced on Wednesday the capture of Sbeira in Lattakia province, located on the Mediterranean Sea.
Authorities accuse him of leading and supplying arms to terrorist groups. Hailing from the town of Jableh, Sbeira is also accused of having links to Ghiyath Dalla and Brigadier General Nours Makhlouf, two military figures associated with the former rule of Assad.
Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011, when he joined the National Defense Militia and helped suppress peaceful demonstrations, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
In 2014, he joined the 4th Armoured Division, which was commanded by Maher Assad, brother of the former president, from 2018 until the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.
