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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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
