World
Israeli strike rocks Beirut after US says it opposes scope of air assault
The Israeli military said it conducted a strike on an underground Hezbollah weapons stockpile in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh
At least one Israeli strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Wednesday morning, Reuters witnesses said, hours after the U.S. said it opposed the scope of Israeli attacks in Beirut amid a rising death toll and fears of wider regional escalation.
Reuters witnesses heard two blasts and saw plumes of smoke emerging from two separate neighborhoods. It came after Israel issued an evacuation order early on Wednesday which mentioned only one building.
The Israeli military has in recent weeks carried out strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, without advance warnings, or issued a warning for one area while striking more broadly.
The Israeli military said it conducted a strike on an underground Hezbollah weapons stockpile in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including advancing warnings to the population in the area,” the Israeli military said.
Israeli military evacuation orders were also affecting more than a quarter of Lebanon, according to the U.N. refugee agency, two weeks after Israel began incursions into the south of the country that it says are aimed at driving back Hezbollah.
Some Western countries have been pushing for a ceasefire between the two neighbors, as well as in Gaza, though the United States says it continues to support Israel and was sending an anti-missile system and troops.
On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. had expressed its concerns to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration on the recent strikes.
“When it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut over the past few weeks, it’s something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we were opposed to,” he told reporters, adopting a harsher tone than Washington has taken so far.
The last time Beirut was hit was on Oct. 10, when two strikes near the city center killed 22 people and brought down entire buildings in a densely populated neighborhood.
World
Trump tells aides he is willing to end Iran war without reopening Hormuz, WSJ reports
U.S. President Donald Trump told aides he is willing to end the military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed and leave a complex operation to reopen it for a later date, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing administration officials.
World
Pentagon preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, Washington Post reports
The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing U.S. officials.
The plans could involve raids by Special Operations and conventional infantry troops, the Post reported. Whether President Donald Trump would approve any of those plans remains uncertain, according to the Post.
The Trump administration has deployed U.S. Marines to the Middle East as the war in Iran stretches into its fifth week, and also has been planning to send thousands of soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne to the region.
World
G7 foreign ministers demand an end to attacks on civilians in Iran war
The ministers also reiterated the need to restore safe and toll-free freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
The foreign ministers of the G7 group of nations called on Friday for an immediate stop to attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Iran war.
In a joint statement agreed on the second day of a G7 meeting in France – this year’s host country – the ministers said they had underscored the importance of minimising the impact of the conflict on regional partners, civilian populations and critical infrastructure.
“We focused on the value of diverse partnerships, coordination, and supporting initiatives, including to mitigate global economic shocks such as disruptions to economic, energy, fertilizer and commercial supply chains, which have direct impacts on our citizens,” they said in the statement seen by Reuters.
The ministers also reiterated the need to restore safe and toll-free freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
The G7 members are the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, along with the European Union.
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