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Israel pounds Lebanon after killing Hezbollah chief

Israel pounds Lebanon after killing Hezbollah chief

Agence France-Presse,

Aya Iskandarani with Jay Deshmukh in Jerusalem

 | 

Updated Sep 29, 2024 05:52 PM PHT

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Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on a target between the villages of Ghandourieh and Froun in southern Lebanon late on September 6, 2024, amid the ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. Ammar Ammar, AFP/FileSmoke rises following an Israeli strike on a target between the villages of Ghandourieh and Froun in southern Lebanon late on September 6, 2024, amid the ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. Ammar Ammar, AFP/FileBEIRUT, Lebanon (UPDATED) -- Israel said it struck "dozens" more Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday, after dealing the Iran-backed group a seismic blow by killing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Nasrallah's killing and the past week's waves of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon have plunged the tiny Mediterranean country and the wider region into fear of even more violence to come.

Hezbollah launched low-intensity cross-border strikes on Israeli troops after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, sparking the war in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly a year later, Israel announced a shift in its focus to battling Hezbollah on its northern front with Lebanon.

Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's killing on Friday in a massive strike on the group's main bastion in the south Lebanon's capital, Beirut.

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The Lebanese health ministry said the strikes on the densely populated area also left 55 people dead, while thousands of others have fled their homes in the neighborhood.

"I can't describe my shock at this announcement... we all started crying," Maha Karit told AFP in Beirut after Nasrallah's death.

With Lebanon already deep in political and economic crisis, the escalation has pushed it to the brink, with the bombardment killing more than 700 people in a week, according to health ministry figures.

The Israeli military said on Sunday its air force had struck "dozens of Hezbollah terror targets" after carrying out "hundreds" of strikes on Friday and Saturday.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported a string of raids in and around the city of Baalbek in the east, with "factories, warehouses" and residential areas among the targets.

At least six people were killed in a strike on a house in the northeastern Hermel region, the agency reported, while an emergency response group affiliated with Hezbollah ally Amal movement said five of its rescuers were killed in the south.

Hezbollah said its fighters launched "a volley of Fadi-1" rockets at an Israeli base in the Golan Heights early Sunday.

The Israeli military reported "approximately eight" launches from Lebanon that fell in unpopulated areas near the Israeli-annexed territory.

- Cult status -


Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah, enjoying cult status among his supporters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had "settled the score" with Nasrallah's killing, while Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the world was "a safer place" without him.

US President Joe Biden -- whose government is Israel's top arms supplier -- said it was a "measure of justice for his many victims".

Analysts told AFP that Nasrallah's death leaves bruised Hezbollah under pressure to respond.

"Either we see an unprecedented reaction by Hezbollah... or this is total defeat," said Heiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group think tank.

The assassination also showcased Israel's military and intelligence prowess in its battle against its foes.

"It demonstrates not only significant technological capacity but just how deeply Israel has penetrated Hezbollah," said James Dorsey of Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Hezbollah backer Iran has condemned Nasrallah's assassination, with First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref threatening it would bring about Israel's "destruction".

Iran's UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani urged diplomacy to prevent Israel "from dragging the region into full-scale war".

Hamas, which has fought Israeli forces in Gaza since the October 7 attack, condemned Nasrallah's killing as a "cowardly terrorist act".

Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Syria all declared public mourning.

Allied armed groups across the region like Yemen's Huthi rebels, already drawn into the Gaza war, have vowed action against Israel.

An "unmanned aerial target" approaching Israel over the Red Sea -- where the Iran-backed Huthis have launched attacks before -- was intercepted on Sunday, the Israeli military said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

- 'Breaking point' -

Most of the deaths in Lebanon came on Monday, the deadliest day of violence since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
Most of the deaths in Lebanon came on Monday, the deadliest day of violence since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said "well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon" and more than 50,000 have fled to neighboring Syria.

The World Food Programme said it had launched an emergency operation to provide meals and support for "up to one million people" affected by the escalation.

"Lebanon is at a breaking point and cannot endure another war," said WFP regional director Corinne Fleischer.

Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink.

In Gaza, AFP correspondents reported several air strikes during the night and shelling from a navy boat.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said an Israeli strike killed at least three Palestinians in a house in Gaza City, with three more killed in two separate strikes in the territory's north and center.

Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,586 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

© Agence France-Presse

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Chile declares state of emergency after massive blackout

Chile declares state of emergency after massive blackout

Agence France-Presse

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Watch more on iWantTFC.com. Watch hundreds of Pinoy shows, movies, live sports and news.

Watch more on iWantTFC.com. Watch hundreds of Pinoy shows, movies, live sports and news.

Chile on Tuesday declared a state of emergency and curfew across much of the country, including the capital Santiago, following a massive, rare blackout that left millions without power.

The worst blackout in the country in well over a decade caused transport chaos in the capital Santiago, where thousands of people were evacuated from the metro and people jostled to board overflowing buses.

The area without power stretches all the way from Arica in the long, narrow South American country's north to Los Lagos in the south, according to the Senapred disaster response agency -- an area home to over 90 percent of Chile's population of 20 million people.

More than five hours after the outage began, Interior Minister Carolina Toha announced a curfew from 10:00 pm (0100 GMT) until 6:00 am (0900 GMT)

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Toha said the measure was part of a state of emergency declared by President Gabriel Boric which "aimed to guarantee the security of the population faced with the possibility that the outage lasts into the night."


- Attack ruled out -


Toha had earlier ruled out sabotage as the reason for the power loss, which began at 3:16 pm in the middle of the southern hemisphere summer.

"There is no reason to assume that this is an attack," she said, telling reporters it was more likely "a failure in the system's operation" and that the grid should be back up and running "in the coming hours.

The metro company, which transports 2.3 million passengers every day, said workers were deployed to all stations "to support safe evacuations."

Out-of-service traffic lights caused major gridlock, with some people having to walk for hours under a hot sun to reach their homes.

Shops and offices closed early.

"They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don't know how we will get home because all the buses are full," worker Maria Angelica Roman, 45, told AFP in Santiago.

"At the bank where I work, all operations had to stop," 25-year-old clerk Jonathan Macalupu said.


- Hanging in the air -


The Chilevision broadcaster showed video of people trapped on a mechanical ride several meters high at an amusement park in Santiago before being rescued.

An AFP photographer saw fire fighters rescue a distraught elderly woman, who had been trapped inside an elevator.

The country's hospital system and prisons were operating on emergency generators.

Boric overflew the capital by helicopter to assess the situation.

In the coastal city of Valparaiso, witnesses also reported shops and businesses closing early and traffic chaos.

Unlike Cuba, which has suffered several nationwide power outages in the past six months, Chile boasts one of the best power networks in South America and has not had a blackout this big in about 15 years.

In 2010, damage to a power plant in southern Chile plunged hundreds of thousands of people into darkness for several hours.

That outage happened a month after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 500 people and rocked the national power grid.

bur-vel/cb/bfm

© Agence France-Presse

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