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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who is Iran’s current Supreme Leader has put out a major call to Muslims on Saturday “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime (of Israel)” after strikes from Israeli bombers killed the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Khamenei’s call came after Israel said it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had “eliminated” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on the group’s headquarters in Beirut. Nasrallah’s death is a major blow to both Hezbollah and Iran, depriving Tehran of an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the key ally in Iran’s network of groups in the Arab world.
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Israel killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a powerful airstrike in Beirut, dealing a heavy blow to the Iran-backed group as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had eliminated Nasrallah in the strike on the group’s central command headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday. Hezbollah confirmed he had been killed, without saying how.
Nasrallah’s death is a major blow to both Hezbollah and Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Nasrallah’s killing as a necessary step toward “changing the balance of power in the region for years to come.”
“Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said in a statement, warning of challenging days ahead.
U.S. President Joe Biden described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the U.S. fully supported Israel’s right to self-defence.
A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, was also killed in the Israeli attacks in Beirut on Friday, Iranian media reported.
Sources told Reuters that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been moved to a secure location in Iran following Nasrallah’s killing.
Strikes continued on Beirut’s southern suburbs throughout the early evening on Saturday, according to a Reuters live broadcast, sending large clouds of smoke over the city.
