US Defense official: 'Israel' behind Arouri martyrdom
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An anonymous US Defense Department official says the Israeli occupation carried out the assassination of Hamas' deputy leader and did not inform Washington before the strike was carried out.
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Smoke rises from a destroyed apartment as civil defense workers search for survivors following a massive explosion in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon, January 2, 2024 (AP)
The Israeli occupation carried out the strike that killed Hamas deputy politburo chief Saleh al-Arouri in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a US defense official said Wednesday.
"The strike was an Israeli strike," the US official told AFP, who did not reveal their identity.
This comes after US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the United States was not given a heads-up prior to the drone strike that killed Hamas' second-in-command.
"We were not informed in advance," Miller said when asked whether the US was alerted ahead of the strike that led to al-Arouri's martyrdom.
The Deputy Chief of the Political Bureau of the Hamas movement, Saleh al-Arouri, was martyred on Tuesday evening, as a result of an attack that targeted the Southern Suburb of Beirut.
Lebanon's National News Agency reported that "an Israeli drone targeted an office of the Hamas movement in Msharafieh" while "ambulances reached the area to transport casualties."
Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that an Israeli drone targeted the building with three missiles, resulting in the martyrdom of six individuals.
In the wake of the assassination, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah, declared that the strike being carried out in the heart of the Southern Suburb of Beirut was a "dangerous development in the course of the war between the Israeli occupation and the Axis of Resistance and a serious attack on Lebanon, its people, security, sovereignty, and resistance."
The Resistance party stressed that the aggression "will not go unanswered or without punishment."
It stressed that the Islamic Resistance remains committed to the promises it made by "keeping its finger on the trigger" and that its fighters remain on high alert and maintain full readiness to respond to any development.
The late martyr and leader had previously discussed in an interview for Al Mayadeen increasing Israeli death threats against him. When asked about the issue, martyr al-Arouri said, "The Israeli threat against me will not change my convictions, and it will not have an impact on the path [that I have chosen]."
US, 'Israel' uninvolved in Iran bombing
After the US admitted that its ally was behind the assassination, it went on to claim that neither itself nor the Israeli occupation was involved in the terrorist attacks that took place in Kerman, Iran, during the commemoration ceremony of the top Iranian commander killed at the hands of the United States, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.
The United States was not involved "in any way" in explosions that took place earlier in the day in the Iranian city of Kerman, Miller insisted.
Dozens of people were killed while over a hundred were wounded in an explosion that rocked the city of Kerman as Iranians flooded the streets marching toward the cemetery where Martyred Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was laid to rest on the 4th anniversary of his martyrdom.
"The United States was not involved in any way and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous," Miller said during a press briefing. "We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion."
Two explosions took place on two different roads leading up to the cemetery, 10 minutes apart, according to the governor of Kerman.
Thousands from around Iran had converged to Kerman today to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of Lieutenant General Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020, along with the deputy chief of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
