(CNN) – The Israeli Armed Forces carried out an airstrike on Friday against Hezbollah’s “central headquarters” in Beirut, Lebanon, its spokesman said. The target of the attack was the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, an Israeli official told CNN.
“Moments ago, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a precise attack against the central headquarters of the terrorist organization Hezbollah that served as the epicenter of Hezbollah terror,” said Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari. in a brief video statement.
“Hezbollah’s terrorist headquarters was intentionally built under residential buildings in the heart of Beirut as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using human shields,” he added.
An Israeli official told CNN that Nasrallah was targeted and that they are trying to confirm whether or not he was killed in the attack.
A former senior Israeli official told CNN that the army would not have attacked that target if it were not sure Nasrallah was there.
“Israel would not have attacked with such reach and power if it were not certain with a very high degree of certainty that the ultra-terrorist was there,” the former official said.
Hours later, the IDF reported that it attacked other buildings in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut that it claims store Hezbollah missiles. The group, for its part, denied that its weapons were stored in civilian buildings targeted by Israeli attacks.
“Claims made by the enemy about the presence of weapons in the bombed civilian buildings are completely false,” Hezbollah said in its first official comments on the airstrikes.
At least six people were killed and 91 injured in Israeli airstrikes against the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported.
The ministry added that this was a preliminary count of victims. Rescuers are still searching through the rubble and the ministry “expects the casualty count to increase in the coming hours.”
State news agency NNA said six buildings were completely destroyed by the Israeli strikes.
CNN has geolocated a video shared on social networks in which large columns of smoke are seen in an area of the southern suburbs of the city known as Dahiyeh.
Dahiyeh is a densely populated area with a strong Hezbollah presence and where many of the group’s leaders are based.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has urged the international community to help stop what he called Israeli “tyranny” following the series of attacks on Beirut, state news agency NNA reported on Friday.
“The new aggression shows that the Israeli enemy does not care about international efforts or calls for a ceasefire,” Mikati said in New York, NNA reported.
Mikati added that the current situation means that the international community has a responsibility “to deter this enemy, and stop its tyranny and the war of extermination that it is waging against Lebanon.”
The Iranian embassy in Beirut said Friday’s Israeli attack “changes the rules of the game” and warned that Israel will be “punished.”
“The Israeli regime once again commits a bloody massacre, targeting densely populated residential neighborhoods, vomiting false justifications to try to cover up its brutal crimes,” the embassy published in X.
“There is no doubt that this reprehensible crime and reckless behavior represents a serious, game-changing escalation, and that its perpetrator will be appropriately punished,” he added.
Israel notified the United States before the Beirut attack on Friday, according to an Israeli official and two American officials. It is unclear whether the target was shared with the United States.
One of the US officials said that Israel informed the US government that they were taking military action once the operation was already underway and Israel had planes in the air.
“We had no prior knowledge of this and that cannot be considered a warning,” the US official said. The Israeli official said the notification was sent “shortly before” the attack, and that the US played no role in the operation.
For his part, US President Joe Biden said he is waiting for more information before commenting on Israel’s airstrikes in Beirut on Friday, reiterating that the US was not involved in the IDF operation. of Defense of Israel.
“We are still gathering information, I can tell you that the United States had no knowledge of nor participated in the IDF action. We are collecting more information. I will have more to say when we have more information,” Biden told reporters traveling with him in Delaware.
Images of the aftermath of the Israeli attacks in Beirut suggest that 900kg bombs were used, a former US Army bomb disposal expert told CNN.
“With the level of damage, it is difficult to determine the exact munitions and quantity, but probably multiple 900 kg bombs, Mk 84s, MPR-2000, or BLU-109 ‘bunker busters’, or a combination of them,” said the specialist Trevor Ball after analyzing the video and images of the attack on the Lebanese capital.
A video recorded immediately after the explosion shows a huge crater whose bottom cannot be seen.
Video from Hezbollah-owned Al Manar station, which filmed live from the scene, also shows debris, fires and extensive damage.
With reporting by CNN’s Oren Liebermann, MJ Lee, Kevin Liptak, Tamara Qiblawi and Hamdi Alkhshali.
