At least 31 killed in Israeli airstrike on Beirut

BEIRUT - At least 31 people were killed, including three children and seven women, in an Israeli strike on Beirut's suburbs on Friday, Lebanese health minister told a televised news conference on Saturday.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday that Israel is committing "shameless crimes" against children, not combatants.

Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander and other senior figures in the Lebanese movement in an airstrike on Beirut on Friday, vowing to press on with a new military campaign until it is able to secure the area around the Lebanese border.

The Israeli military and a security source in Lebanon said Ibrahim Aqil had been killed with other senior members of an elite Hezbollah unit in the airstrike, sharply escalating the year-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Hezbollah confirmed Aqil's death in a statement just after midnight that called him "one of its top leaders," without providing details of how he died.

In a second statement issued later, Hezbollah said Aqil was killed in Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh in what it called a "treacherous Israeli assassination".

It said that Ahmed Wahbi, a commander who oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces during the Gaza war until early 2024, was also killed in the Israeli strike.