New Delhi: The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said that it launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at Israeli artillery sites on Friday. This attack, it said, was in retaliation to the recent Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah targeted “enemy artillery positions with dozens of Katyusha rockets…in response to the enemy’s attacks on… southern villages and civilian homes,” the militant group said in a statement, AFP reported.
The Israeli army said “approximately 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanese territory, some of which were intercepted. No injuries were reported.”
Two Hezbollah drones that had crossed from Lebanon were intercepted earlier, the Israeli army added.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging frequent cross-border fire since October 7 last year when the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched assaults on southern Israel, leading to the conflict in Gaza.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel bombarded multiple villages near the border as well.
So far, the war has resulted in at least 363 fatalities in Lebanon, primarily Hezbollah fighters but also including around 70 civilians, according to the tally by news agency AFP.
On the Israeli side, the military has reported 10 soldiers and 8 civilians killed.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled their residences on both sides of the border due to the violence.
US Sending Reinforcements To Middle East, Says Defence Official
Meanwhile, the United States on Friday said it was sending reinforcements to the Middle East amid escalating fears that Iran could soon launch an attack on Israel.
“We are moving additional assets to the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for US forces,” a US defence official in Washington, a key ally of Israel, said, AFP reported.
The US also said a “reprisal” from Tehran is a possibility after Israel hit the Iranian embassy in Syria.
In a statement on Friday, the White House said the threat of Iran avenging the killing of its two top generals in the Israeli air strike recently was “real”.
“We still deem the potential threat by Iran here to be real, to be viable,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told journalists, according to AFP.
