Hezbollah confirms death of senior leader Ali Karaki in Israeli airstrikes

BEIRUT -- Hezbollah confirmed on Sunday that the group's senior leader Ali Karaki, head of the southern front, was killed, along with top leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in the Israeli airstrikes targeting Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.

Hezbollah said in a statement that Karaki "was martyred with a group of his jihadist brothers in the enemy's criminal raid on Haret Hreik, accompanied by ... Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah."

On Friday evening, Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on Hezbollah's main headquarters in Dahieh, the southern suburbs of Beirut, during which Nasrallah and some other commanders of the armed group were killed.

The raids flattened several residential buildings, resulting in at least six deaths, 91 injuries, and significant infrastructure damage in the neighborhood, local media reported earlier.

These heavy assaults mark the latest escalation of the ongoing clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, which began on Oct 8, 2023, when Hezbollah started launching rockets at Israel in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, prompting Israel's retaliatory artillery fire and airstrikes in southeastern Lebanon.