World

Body of Hezbollah leader found in Beirut rubble, sources confirm

Israel had announced it killed senior commander Fuad Shukr, blaming him for an attack that killed 12 in Golan Heights

Reuters July 31, 2024

An undated photograph of Muhsin Shukr, also known as Fuad Shukr, and described by Lebanese security sources as head of Hezbollah's operations center, appears on a wanted poster circulated by the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service entity "Rewards for Justice". Rewards for Justice (RFJ)/Handout via REUTERS

BEIRUT:

The body of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr has been found in rubble in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut, two security sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Israel's military announced late on Tuesday that it had killed Shukr, whom it named as Hezbollah's most senior commander and whom it blamed for an attack at the weekend that left a dozen youngsters dead in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that two floors of a building in Haret Hreik, a suburb to the south of Beirut and a known stronghold of Hezbollah, have collapsed, and that one person was killed and others wounded.

A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs - a stronghold of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah - at around 7:40 pm (1640 GMT) on Tuesday.

"The IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians," the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement.

Lebanon's state-run national news agency said an Israeli strike had targeted the area around Hezbollah's Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of the capital.

Beirut had been on edge for days ahead of an anticipated Israeli attack in retaliation for a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed a dozen youngsters.