Hezbollah confirms Hassan Nasrallah martyred in Israel strike

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group on Saturday confirmed its leader Hassan Nasrallah had been martyred, after Israel said it had “eliminated” him in a strike on south Beirut a day earlier.

“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

The Israeli military said earlier that Nasrallah was eliminated in a “targeted strike” on Friday on the group’s underground headquarters beneath a residential building in Dahiyeh – a Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut.

“The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel,” it said.

Friday’s airstrike on Dahiyeh shook Beirut. A security source in Lebanon said the attack – a quick succession of massively powerful blasts – had left a crater at least 20 metres (65 feet) deep.

It was followed on Saturday by further airstrikes on Dahiyeh and other parts of Lebanon. Huge explosions lit up the night sky, and more strikes hit the area in the morning. Smoke rose over the city.

Nasrallah led the group since 1992.

A source close to Hezbollah told earlier the contact with Nasrallah had been “lost” since Friday night.