IAF fighter jets attacked at least 15 targets around Beirut on Friday - three bridges linking Beirut with north Lebanon and a bridge linking Beirut to the south. It was the first time Israel struck a major Christian population center to the north of the Lebanese capital. Four civilians were killed and ten wounded in the strike, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. The IAF also attacked a power station in the southern Bekaa Valley, causing a blackout in the area of Kiraoun. Four bridges on the main north-south coastal highway were hit. The road links Beirut to Syria. Three more bridges, linking Beirut to northern Lebanon were also destroyed. The bridges were located in Maameltain, Madfoun and Halat.
South of Beirut, a Lebanese soldier was killed in an air strike on an army base near the airport. Three were also killed as warplanes targeted a building, a 'safe house' and an office used by Hizbullah terrorists in the Dahiyeh neighborhood in south Beirut. The IAF also flew 15 sorties over the neighborhood of Ouzai, another Hizbullah stronghold. The highway to the south begins in the southern Beirut neighborhood.
The attacks come in the wake of a threat by Hizbullah chief terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, who warned on Thursday that Tel Aviv would become the next target if Beirut was attacked. “If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping entity,” he said. “We will bomb Tel Aviv.” The White City, as Tel Aviv is known, remains untouched thus far.
Also, in news briefs:
(IsraelNN.com) 120 Katyusha rockets have landed in northern communities since Friday morning.
(IsraelNN.com) A woman sustained moderate-to-serious injuries in a rocket attack near Maalot.
(IsraelNN.com) IDF Homefront Command officials report that sirens did sound in Zichron and Binyamina, but there were no rocket attacks in those areas. Military officials stated with certainty that the sirens in those areas were false alarms. |