BEIRUT (AP) — More than two days after a massive Israeli airstrike that killed the leader of the Hezbollah militant group, smoke is still rising from the smoldering wreckage.
Israel said the Friday night strike targeted a meeting at an underground Hezbollah compound. The blasts leveled multiple high-rise apartment towers in the densely populated predominantly Shiite southern suburb known as Dahiyeh.
Hezbollah confirmed in a statement Saturday that its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in the strike — a huge blow for the group he had led for 32 years.
On Sunday, Associated Press journalists saw smoke could be seen over the rubble as people flocked to the site, some to check on what’s left of their homes, others to pay respects and pray, and others simply to see the destruction.
Residents of Beirut heard up to 10 explosions following the Friday strike that targeted an area greater than a city block, reducing several residential buildings to a jumble of pancaked concrete and twisted steel. The buildings sank into the ground, leaving a cleared-out area nearly the size of a football field.
Israel provided no immediate comment on the type or number of bombs used, but experts said the blasts and destruction left behind were consistent with the 2,000-pound-class bombs (900 kilograms), likely designed to explode after penetrating structures.
Onlookers at the site Sunday clambered over large slabs of concrete, surrounded by high piles of twisted metal and wreckage. Several craters, likely used by rescuers to penetrate under the site of the explosion were visible, some of them apparently up to 30 meters (100 feet) deep.
A few Hezbollah workers were using a bulldozer to excavate around one of the craters, some of them apparently dug by rescuers to reach the dead. State security and investigators were nowhere to be seen.
The AP footage provided one of the closest looks at the site of the assassination and the extent of the destruction it caused.
So far, six deaths have been confirmed at the site, along with dozens of injuries, but it is not clear if the diggers are still looking for bodies. Some people on the scene Sunday said their relatives were still missing.
A woman wearing the black head-to-toe robe known as the chador stood on one side, reading from the Islamic holy book, the Quran, as a group of bystanders sobbed. One man collapsed in tears after seeing the immense destruction.
“Ya Sayyed, Ya Sayyed!” he cried, his head resting against a wall, as he referred to Nasrallah by his honorific title .
“Our morale is high and the struggle shall continue,” said Ali Rahhal, 30. “From here, from the heart of Dahiyeh, we say ‘labbayka ya, Nasrallah’,” he said. The Arabic phrase, which means “at your service, Nasrallah,” was often chanted by supporters at Hezbollah rallies.
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Associated Press writer Fadi Tawil contributed reporting.
