1 killed, 11 wounded in intense Israeli strikes on south Lebanon
Nabatieh (Lebanon), Jun 27 (AP): Israel's air force carried out intense airstrikes on mountains overlooking a southern Lebanon city Friday in an attack that the Israeli military said targeted underground assets of Hezbollah group.
Shortly afterward, another strike hit an apartment building in the nearby city of Nabatieh, killing one woman, wounding 11 and knocking out the building's top floor, according to Lebanon's state news agency.
It was not immediately clear if that strike targeted anyone in the building.
Since the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a US-brokered ceasefire in November, Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes on southern Lebanon. Friday's strikes were more intense than usual.
“We are steadfast no matter how much you bomb us with your fighter jets and drones,” Hassan Ghandour, a Shiite cleric from Nabatieh, told The Associated Press at the scene of the strike outside the building.
Lebanon's president and prime minister condemned the Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, saying they violated the ceasefire deal.
The airstrikes on the mountains overlooking Nabatieh came in two waves, and bunker buster bombs were used, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported. NNA said four people were lightly wounded in the airstrikes outside the city.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its fighter jets struck a site used by Hezbollah to manage its fire and defence array in the area and is part of a significant underground project that was completely taken out of use.
The Israeli army said it identified rehabilitation attempts by Hezbollah beforehand and struck infrastructure sites in the area.
There was no comment from Hezbollah.
Hezbollah suffered significant losses on the battlefield during the war, which left over 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and caused destruction amounting to $11 billion. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.
As part of the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was pushed away from areas bordering Israel in south Lebanon and is not allowed to have an armed presence south of the Litani River.
Friday's airstrikes were north of the river.
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Trump repeats claim he ended conflict between India and Pakistan
New York/Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump Thursday said he had threatened to put 200 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they didn't stop the fighting last summer, reiterating the claim that he stopped the war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Trump repeated the claim that he stopped eight wars within the first year of his second term in the White House as he addressed an event of the Board of Peace in Washington.
India has consistently denied any third-party intervention.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the event along with leaders of the other nations who have signed up to join the Trump-led organisation.
As he addressed the event, Trump listed the conflicts he helped end and asked leaders of the countries to stand up as he mentioned the nations.
Trump asked Sharif to stand up and then said, "I spoke to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi. He's excited. He's watching us right now."
"Pakistan and India. That was a big one. I think you should actually stand, come please stand just for a second. Pakistan and India. Thank you very much," Trump said.
As he spoke about ending the war between India and Pakistan last summer, Trump said he likes Sharif and the country's Field Marshal and Chief of Defence Forces Asim Munir, whom he called a "great guy".
"…There was some fighting going on when I got to know him (Sharif) and your Field Marshal General. Great, Great General. Great Field Marshal, a great guy,” he said.
Trump repeated the assertion that Sharif had claimed he saved “25 million lives” when he stopped the war between India and Pakistan.
Earlier, Trump had claimed that Sharif said he had saved 10 million lives by ending the conflict between the two nations.
"You made that statement," Trump said to Sharif. “I said 25 million lives, could have been much more actually, but it was really a beautiful thing…. That war was raging. Planes were being shot down, and it was Pakistan and India.
"And I got on the phone with both of them, and I knew him (Sharif) a little bit. I knew Prime Minister Modi very well, actually. I got to know Pakistan through a little trade. They were trying to make too good a deal, and I would get a little upset with them. And in the end, they got what they wanted, right? And they made a good deal, and I got to like them, the Prime Minister, the Field Marshal, who's a tough man, a tough good fighter, serious fighter. I like good fighters, actually,” Trump said.
“And when I heard that they were fighting, I pick up a certain newspaper.… and I saw that Pakistan and India were really going at it. And then it got worse and worse, and… many planes were shot down. It was all out. And I called them, I said, ‘Listen, I'm not doing trade deals with you two guys, if you don't settle this up’. They said, ‘No, no, no’,” Trump said, adding that neither of the two countries wanted to do that.
“I said, ‘No, it has to. If you don't do it, I'm not doing a trade deal. We're not doing a trade deal’," he added.
“And they do a lot of business with the United States, and they sort of softened up all of a sudden. And all of a sudden, I read where there was a little bit of a pullback by one, then the other, and all of a sudden, we worked out a deal. But I said, ‘If you fight, I'm going to put 200% tariffs on each of your countries’,” which essentially would have meant that they could not have done any business with the US.
“One of them, I won't say which one, said, ‘No, can't do that’. They both wanted to fight. But when it came to money, nothing like money. When it came to losing a lot of money, they said, ‘I guess we don't want to fight’. And we solved that deal in two-three days.
“And we did. We said these are two very powerful, two nuclear nations. And I don't want to say what was going to happen, but, you know, bad things happen. So, Prime Minister, I want to thank you, because that was a very big deal. People have no idea. A lot of them say, ‘Oh, well, they weren't fighting’. They were fighting, 11 jets were shot down, very expensive jets, and they were all in. Both of them were all in, and now they're not.
“And I think we'll always be able to settle up with them. I really do. I think… a lot of progress was made, even in the relationship. And Prime Minister Modi also is a great man. He's a great guy. They're all great, but I was very proud of it.”
He, however, did not specify which country's jets he was referring to.
Trump has claimed credit for stopping the India-Pakistan conflict more than 80 times since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that the two neighbours had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after talks mediated by the US.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
India has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.
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