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Death toll rises in Israeli military “targeted attack” that killed Hezbollah commanders
The death toll from a “targeted attack” by the Israeli military on a Beirut suburb rose to 31, including seven women and three children, Lebanon’s health minister said on Saturday.
Firass Abiad told reporters that 68 people were also wounded in the attack, of whom 15 remain hospitalized. He said search and rescue operations are ongoing and the number of casualties will likely rise.
The strike – the deadliest targeting the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war – hit a densely populated southern neighborhood on Friday afternoon during rush hour as people returned home.
Bilal Hussein / AP
The Israeli military said Saturday it killed 16 Hezbollah operatives. Among those killed were Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, who was in charge of the group’s elite Radwan Force, and Ahmed Wahbi, another senior commander in the group’s military wing. Iran-backed Hezbollah said Friday night that 15 of its operatives were killed by Israeli forces, but did not elaborate on the location of these deaths.
The United States had previously offered a “reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and or conviction” of Aqil, who it has said was a leader of Hezbollah in the 1980s, when the group claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed more than 300 people, and the U.S. Marines barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel.
The militant group members were in a meeting in the basement of the building that was destroyed, Israel’s military said.
Lebanese troops cordoned off the area, preventing people from reaching the building that was knocked down as members of the Lebanese Red Cross stood nearby to take any recovered bodies from under the rubble. On Saturday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists on a tour of the scene of the airstrike where workers were still digging through the rubble.
The Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie told reporters at the scene that 23 people are still missing.
The airstrike on the crowded Qaim street knocked out an eight-story building that had 16 apartments and damaged another one adjacent to it. The missiles destroyed the first building and cut through the basement of the second where the meeting of Hezbollah officials was being held, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.
In a nearby building, shops were badly damaged including one that sold clothes and had a sign in English that read: “DRESS LIKE YOU’RE ALREADY FAMOUS.”
Bilal Hussein / AP
The White House earlier warned both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah against “escalation of any kind” following this week’s synchronized pager and walkie-talkie explosions targeting Hezbollah members. Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah has continued firing back.
At least 37 people – including two children – were killed in the pager and walkie-talkie explosions. Some 2,900 others were wounded in the assault which has been widely attributed to Israel.
The Lebanese health minister said Saturday hospitals across the country were filled with the wounded.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attack but CBS News learned that American officials were given a heads-up by Israel about 20 minutes before the operations began in Lebanon on Tuesday. No specific details about the methods were shared.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have largely struck areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon.
Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet said stopping Hezbollah’s attacks in the country’s north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal, as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could spark an all-out conflict. Israel has since sent a powerful fighting force to the northern border.
The tit-for-tat strikes have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday will visit the Pennsylvania ammunition factory that is producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces.
He is expected to go to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant to kick off a busy week in the United States shoring up support for Ukraine in the war, according to two U.S. officials and a third familiar with Zelenskyy’s schedule who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not yet public. He also will address the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering in New York and travel to Washington for talks on Thursday with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Scranton plant is one of the few facilities in the country to manufacture 155 mm artillery shells. They are used in howitzer systems, which are towed large guns with long barrels that can fire at various angles. Howitzers can strike targets up to 15 miles to 20 miles (24 kilometers to 32 kilometers) away and are highly valued by ground forces to take out enemy targets from a protected distance.
Ukraine has already received more than 3 million of the 155 mm shells from the U.S.
With the war now well into its third year, Zelenskyy has been pushing the U.S. for permission to use longer range missile systems to fire deeper inside of Russia.
So far he has not persuaded the Pentagon or White House to loosen those restrictions. The Defense Department has emphasized that Ukraine can already hit Moscow with Ukrainian-produced drones, and there is hesitation on the strategic implications of a U.S.-made missile potentially striking the Russian capital.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia would be “at war” with the United States and its NATO allies if they allow Ukraine to use the long-range weapons.
At one point in the war, Ukraine was firing between 6,000 and 8,000 of the 155 mm shells per day. That rate started to deplete U.S. stockpiles and drew concern that the level on hand was not enough to sustain U.S. military needs if another major conventional war broke out, such as in a potential conflict over Taiwan.
In response, the U.S. has invested in restarting production lines and is now manufacturing more than 40,000 155 mm rounds a month, with plans to hit 100,000 rounds a month. During his visit, Zelenskyy is expected to meet and thank workers who have increased production of the 155 mm rounds over the past year.
Two of the Pentagon leaders who have pushed that increased production through — Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology and Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer — are also expected to join Zelenskyy at the plant, as is Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa.
The 155 mm rounds are just one of the scores of ammunition, missile, air defense and advanced weapons systems the U.S. has provided Ukraine — everything from small arms bullets to advanced F-16 fighter jets. The U.S. has been the largest donor to Ukraine, providing more than $56 billion of the more than $106 billion NATO and partner countries have collected to aid in its defense.
Even though Ukraine is not a member of NATO, commitment to its defense is seen by many of the European nations as a must to keep Putin from further military aggression that could threaten bordering NATO-member countries and result in a much larger conflict.
Federal agents have boarded a vessel managed by the same company as a cargo ship that caused the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse, the FBI has confirmed to CBS News.
In statements Saturday, spokespeople for the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland confirmed that authorities have boarded the Maersk Saltoro. The ship is managed by Synergy Marine Group.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division and Coast Guard Investigative Services are present aboard the Maersk Saltoro conducting court authorized law enforcement activity,” the FBI told CBS News in a statement.
The agency said it was “unable to comment further.”
In a lawsuit Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department has alleged that Dali owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and manager Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore, recklessly cut corners and ignored known electrical problems on the vessel that had a power outage moments before it crashed into a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. Six men who were doing work on the bridge died.
The Justice Department is seeking to recover more than $100 million the government spent to clear the underwater debris and reopen the city’s port.
Darrell Wilson, a Grace Ocean spokesperson, confirmed that the FBI and Coast Guard boarded the Maersk Saltoro in the Port of Baltimore on Saturday morning.
Wilson has previously said the owner and manager “look forward to our day in court to set the record straight” about the Justice Department’s lawsuit.
The budget motel chain Motel 6 is being acquired by the parent company of Oyo, a hotel operator based in India.
The New York-based investment firm Blackstone, which owns Motel 6’s parent company G6 Hospitality, announced Friday that the deal would be an all-cash transaction worth $525 million.
The transaction will also include the sale of the Studio 6 motel brand, which caters to customers seeking extended stays. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images G
Oyo, which launched in India just over a decade ago, has been expanding its footprint in the U.S. over the past few years. The company says it currently operates 320 hotels across 35 states and is aiming to add 250 more this year.
“This acquisition is a significant milestone for a startup company like us to strengthen our international presence,” Gautam Swaroop, OYO’s international division chief, said in a statement.
Blackstone had purchased Motel 6 and Studio 6 in 2012 for $1.9 billion. Since then, the private equity giant says it has heavily invested in the brand and pursued a strategy that converted the chain into a franchise.
“This transaction is a terrific outcome for investors and is the culmination of an ambitious business plan that more than tripled our investors’ capital and generated over $1 billion in profit over our hold period,” Rob Harper, the head of Blackstone Real Estate Asset Management Americas, said in a statement.
Under the deal, Oravel Stays, which owns Oyo, will acquire G6 Hospitality.