Hezbollah confirms killings of 2 more leaders in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon
CBC
Hezbollah has confirmed the death of high-ranking official Nabil Kaouk in an Israeli airstrike, the seventh senior commander killed in just over a week.
The Israeli military earlier said it had killed Kaouk in a strike in a southern Beirut suburb on Saturday.
Kaouk was deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. He also served as Hezbollah's military commander in south Lebanon from 1995 until 2010.
He was the seventh senior leader of the Lebanon-based Shia militant group to be killed since Sept. 20. They include Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's top leader for more than three decades.
Senior Hezbollah commander Ali Karaki also died in the airstrike that killed Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday, Hezbollah confirmed Sunday.
The several senior Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades and were close to Nasrallah himself.
A strike by fighter jets killed Kaouk in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut late Saturday, said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
In 2020, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Kaouk and another member of Hezbollah's council, Hassan al-Baghdadi.
Kaouk has been a Hezbollah member since the 1980s, serving as Hezbollah's military commander in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel.
He often appeared in local media, commenting on politics and security developments, and gave eulogies at the funerals of senior militants. The United States announced sanctions against him in 2020.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies that consider themselves part of an Iran-backed Axis of Resistance against Israel.
Israel has responded with waves of airstrikes, and the conflict has steadily ratcheted up to the brink of all-out war, raising fears of a region-wide conflagration.
Israel said it is determined to return some 60,000 of its citizens to communities in the north that were evacuated nearly a year ago. Hezbollah has said it will only halt its rocket fire if there is a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that began Oct. 7. A ceasefire has proven elusive despite months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
Hezbollah has also been targeted by a sophisticated attack on its pagers and walkie-talkies that was widely blamed on Israel. A wave of Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon has killed at least 1,030 people — including 156 women and 87 children — in under two weeks, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
Israel's cabinet approved a deal early Saturday for a ceasefire in Gaza that would release dozens of hostages held there and pause the 15-month war with Hamas, bringing the sides a step closer to ending their deadliest and most destructive fighting ever.
A complex and fragile deal to pause fighting in the Gaza Strip has been reached, with hostilities expected to cease on Sunday — more than 15 months after the Israel-Hamas war began.
The contrasting reactions between Palestinians and Israelis to the long-awaited news of an impending hostage exchange and ceasefire have been telling.
Amid the relief at the prospect of hostages returning home and an end to the slaughter and destruction in Gaza, there are also plenty of questions about why the potential ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — being brokered with the help of Qatar — couldn't have been signed eight months ago.
Foreboding weather forecasts keep tensions high in Los Angeles as one of North America's largest cities battles wildfires that have already claimed at least two dozen lives and thousands of homes.
Qatari mediators have sent Israel and Hamas a draft proposal for an agreement to halt the fighting in the Gaza Strip and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners as a first step toward an end to the 15-month-old war.
Over the last nine months of the war in Gaza, Nora al-Batran was pregnant with twins. The 38-year-old was displaced multiple times with her husband and children as they skirted bombs and gunfire and sought refuge in a tent in the town of Deir al Balah.
U.S. special counsel Jack Smith has resigned from the Justice Department after submitting his investigative report on president-elect Donald Trump, an expected move that comes amid legal wrangling over how much of that document can be made public in the days ahead.
When people think of wildfires, burning trees are likely the first image that comes to mind.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has escaped any legal punishment other than a criminal record for his felony crimes, after a judge on Friday handed him an alternative sentence called an unconditional discharge.
Thursday was marked by massive marches and a confused high-profile abduction in Venezuela, on the same day that Canada recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the legitimate president of the country.
Firefighters battled early Thursday to control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their homes.
Finland says it has found more than two dozen serious deficiencies aboard the impounded Eagle S, a ship that was carrying Russian oil and is accused of deliberately dragging its anchor in the Baltic Sea on Dec. 25, damaging an underwater power line and four telecommunication cables.
As if having the ear of incoming U.S. president Donald Trump weren't enough, tech billionaire Elon Musk has been on a tear this week, trashing European politicians on both the left and right, and using posts on his social media platform, X, to disrupt politics across the continent.
A wildfire whipped up by extreme winds swept through a Los Angeles hillside dotted with celebrity residences Tuesday, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands. In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways were clogged and scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.
A strong earthquake killed at least 95 people in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the high-altitude region of western China and across the border in Nepal.
For two centuries, the certification of U.S. presidential election results was little more than a ceremonial rubber stamp by Congress.
Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding seven others.