A senior instructor of Hezbollah's guerrillas escaped an assassination attempt on Friday night when a bomb blew up his car seconds after he got out of the vehicle, Lebanese police said.
The explosion in the eastern city of Baalbek caused no casualties, a police official said on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the "treacherous assassination attempt" and warned that it will retaliate.
"The Zionist enemy is fully responsible for the operation's planning and execution," Hezbollah said in a statement broadcast on its Al-Manar Television.
"The Islamic resistance will fully shoulder its responsibility in this regard and do what is necessary," the statement added.
Neither Hezbollah nor the police would identify the official who drove the car, a Mercedes. Al-Manar said he was a member of the group's military wing, and the police said he was in charge of training guerrillas.
Al-Manar said the explosion took place near the house of Sheik Mohammed Yazbek, who sits on Hezbollah's Shoura Council, its top decision-making authority.
A reporter said the bomb exploded 300m from the Yazbek's house.
A small crowd quickly gathered at the scene. Police tried to stop media from taking pictures and threw a tarpaulin over the wrecked vehicle.
The type of bomb was not immediately clear, the police official added.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese