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Salim Jamil Ayyash was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a UN-backed tribunal over ex-Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri’s killing in 2005.
The US had offered a reward of $10 million for information on Salim Jamil Ayyash, wanted in terrorism-related charges. (US Rewards For Justice)
An Israeli strike is said to have eliminated a Hezbollah commander who was allegedly responsible for the assassination of a former Lebanese PM, the Al-Arabiya outlet reported on Sunday.
Salim Jamil Ayyash was killed, with unconfirmed reports claiming he was struck near the Syrian city of al-Qausayr, a known Hezbollah stronghold. Ayyash, a senior member of Hezbollah’s Unit 151 assassination squad, had a $10 million price on his head from the United States, according to The Times of Israel.
In 2020, Ayyash was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a UN-backed tribunal over the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in a suicide bombing in Beirut in 2005. However, then-Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in September, refused to hand him over to authorities.
Ayyash faced a separate case at the tribunal over three other deadly attacks on Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.
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Israel Kills 23 In Lebanon’s Almat; Beirut Targeted
The report of Ayyash’s killing comes as an Israeli airstrike killed at least 23 people, including seven children, in Almat in Lebanon’s Mount Lebanon province, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday.
Three people were also killed and two others wounded in an Israeli strike on Mashghara in the western part of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley late on Saturday, while one person was killed and four others injured in a strike on Sahmar, also in western Bekaa.
Furthermore, at least six people were wounded on Sunday in a series of attacks from Lebanon on northern Israel. Of them, three people were reported wounded in an apparent anti-tank missile strike in the northern border town of Metula in Israel.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,100 people and wounded 13,979 in Lebanon over the last year. The toll includes 619 women and 194 children.
‘Israel Has Defeated Hezbollah’: Defence Minister
Israel’s newly-appointed Defence Minister Israel Katz on Sunday said his country has defeated Hezbollah and that eliminating its leader Hassan Nasrallah was the crowning achievement. “Now it is our job to continue to put pressure in order to bring about the fruits of that victory,” Katz said during a ceremony at Israel’s foreign ministry.
Katz said Israel is not interested in meddling in internal Lebanese politics as Israel has “learned our lessons”, but that he hoped an international coalition would capitalise on this opportunity politically and that Lebanon would join other countries in normalizing relations with Israel.
Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since October 2023, but fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year. Israel has intensified and expanded its bombing campaign, and Hezbollah has ramped up daily rocket and drone attacks against Israel.
Israel has eliminated most of Hezbollah’s top leadership, including Nasrallah, and has also escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed terror targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defences and some Syrian forces. The attacks on northern Israel from Lebanon since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 40 civilians.
(with agency inputs)
- Location :
Beirut, Lebanon
