(CNN) – The Israeli military said it killed Ibrahim Aqil, a senior Hezbollah military official, in Friday’s attack in southern Beirut.
Sources told CNN that senior Hezbollah military figure Ibrahim Aqil was the target of Israel’s attack in Beirut that leveled a building, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 60.
Last year, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Hezbollah bombing of the US embassy in Beirut in 1983, the US Department of State announced a reward of up to $7 million for information about Aqil, a key leader of the extremist group.
The US accused Aqil of involvement in the 1983 embassy bombing, which killed 63 people, as well as the Hezbollah bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 more US personnel. late that year.
Rewards for Justicea State Department agency that offers rewards for information on terrorists, says Aqil is part of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body.
In the 1980s, he was a member of Islamic Jihad, the militant group that claimed responsibility for the two 1983 attacks.
The Israeli Army said this Friday that senior members of Hezbollah’s operations staff and commanders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force were also killed in Israel’s attack in southern Beirut.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said “about 10 commanders” were killed.
The military alleged that Aqil and commanders were the architects of a plan to raid and occupy communities in the Galilee, northern Israel, and kill Israeli civilians and soldiers, comparing it to the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas on last year.
“They were underground, under a residential building in the heart of the Dahya neighborhood, using civilians as human shields,” Hagari said at a news conference on Friday. “They were coordinating terrorist operations against Israeli citizens.”
In its statement, the military also accused Aqil of promoting or participating in other attacks against Israel.
So far no deaths have been confirmed by Hezbollah.
The Lebanese government requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council following the recent attack, accusing Israel of carrying out acts “like genocide” on Lebanese soil.
The Lebanese interim cabinet said in a statement published on ”
“This new aggression is a matter of conscience for the international community, which remains silent in the face of violations of human rights and justice,” the statement said.
Michael Rios and Lauren Izso contributed to this report.
