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THE WORLD
AMMAN, Jordan —
Hezbollah and the Lebanese
army have blamed Israel for
a drone attack on Beirut on
Sunday morning while the
leader of the Iran-backed
Shiite militia and political
party threatened retalia-
tion.
“Hezbollah will not allow
such an aggression,” the
group’s secretary general,
Hassan Nasrallah, said in a
televised speech after two
drones struck the city. “The
time when Israeli aircraft
come and bombard parts of
Lebanon is over.”
The Israeli army declined
to comment on the incident.
In recent weeks, Israeli
forces have reportedly at-
tacked a base in Iraq being
used by Iranian forces as
well as locations in Syria
that Israeli officials said
were being used by Iran to
transfer advanced weapons
to allied groups that could
use them to threaten Israel’s
borders.
U.S. Secretary of State
Michael R. Pompeo told Is-
raeli Prime Minister Ben-
jamin Netanyahu in a phone
call Sunday that he sup-
ported Israel’s right to de-
fend itself from threats from
Iran, according to a state-
ment released by the State
Department.
Pompeo also spoke to
Lebanese Prime Minister
Saad Hariri, according to a
statement from Hariri’s of-
fice, and “stressed the need
to avoid any escalation.” Al-
though Hariri said Lebanon
was committed to “the obli-
gations of international
resolutions,” he never-
theless emphasized the dan-
ger of what he described as
“continuous Israeli viola-
tions” of Lebanese sover-
eignty.
The first drone fell in the
Moawwad neighborhood in
Beirut’s southern suburbs,
according to the Lebanese
army, while the second,
which was equipped with ex-
plosives, detonated around
2:30 in the morning and
caused “material damage.”
An army team cordoned
off the site and “took the nec-
essary procedures,” army of-
ficials said in a statement.
Local activists shared
pictures on social media
that purportedly showed a
drone that had been
brought down by a resident
who threw rocks at it. Later,
a second drone appeared in
the same area equipped with
explosives, Nasrallah said.
The drone detonated
with a powerful blast that
knocked out one of Hezbol-
lah’s media offices. The
group said there were no
casualties, but a corre-
spondent for the state-run
National News Agency said
three people in the media
center were lightly injured.
Images broadcast by lo-
cal TV channels from inside
the media office showed a
room in disarray, with glass
fragments blanketing dam-
aged furniture adorned with
promotional pictures of Ira-
nian and Lebanese Shiite re-
ligious figures.
Hezbollah spokesman
Mohammad Afif said the
group had taken possession
of a downed drone and was
analyzing its trajectory and
the targets of its reconnais-
sance. Activists identified it
as a commercially produced
DJI Matrice drone, which
according to the company
website has a maximum op-
erational range of three
miles. Beirut is roughly 60
miles north of the Israeli
border.
“It’s possible the drone
was launched from the sea,”
Afif said, adding that the tar-
geted area was some two
miles from the coast.
State media reported in-
tense Israeli drone activity
on Sunday in the wake of the
incident.
Nasrallah said the attack
represented “a significant
violation of equations that
had been in place since the
2006 war,” referring to the
monthlong conflict with Is-
rael that devastated large
swaths of Beirut and Leba-
non’s south, killed nearly
1,200 Lebanese civilians and
ended in a stalemate.He also referred to a
spate of mysterious explo-
sions now attributed to Isra-
el against Iran-affiliated
groups in Iraq, saying that
being silent in the face of
Sunday’s attack would lead
to a repeat of the same sce-
nario in Lebanon.
“We in Lebanon do not al-
low such a trajectory of this
type and will do all we can to
stop it,” he said.
Lebanon’s normally frac-
tious politicians were united
in denouncing the attack.
Lebanese President Michel
Aoun described the incident
as a “blatant aggression on
Lebanese sovereignty” and a
part of a “continuing series
of violations” as well as “ad-
ditional proof of Israel’s ag-
gressive intentions.”
“Lebanon ... will take the
appropriate measures after
consulting with the con-
cerned parties,” Aoun said
in the statement.
Israeli drones and war-
planes regularly breach Leb-
anese airspace, prompting
Lebanon to complain to the
United Nations, but with lit-
tle effect.
The country has a small
air force comprising helicop-
ters and turboprop light at-
tack aircraft.
The drones, Hariri said in
a statement Sunday, were “a
threat to regional stability
and an attempt to push the
situation towards more ten-
sion.”
Hezbollah, an Iran-
backed group that first
emerged during Israel’s oc-
cupation of southern Leba-
non in the 1980s, has devel-
oped into a dominant force
in Lebanese politics as well
as an armed group viewed by
many as being more effec-tive than the Lebanese
army.
More recently, its cadres
have bolstered forces loyal to
Syrian President Bashar
Assad, an ally of Iran who
since 2011 has fought an
armed rebellion against his
rule.
The incident came hours
after Israel’s military said it
had thwarted an imminent
attack by Iran and its prox-
ies — with airstrikes that
targeted an area south of the
Syrian capital, Damascus,
near its airport.
The attack, said Israel
Defense Forces spokesman
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus,
was to involve “killer
drones,” which carry explo-
sives and act as guided mis-
siles.
The state-run Syrian Ar-ab News Agency quoted an
unnamed military source
who said that authorities
had tracked multiple mis-
siles approaching Damas-
cus from the occupied Golan
Heights and that air defense
systems had downed “most
of the Israeli aggressor mis-
siles before they reached
their targets.”
But the Syrian Observa-
tory for Human Rights, a
pro-opposition activist
group that monitors devel-
opments in Syria, said two
Hezbollah members as well
as an Iranian militiaman
were killed in the strike.
Pro-Hezbollah activists
on social media uploaded
pictures of what were said to
be the dead Hezbollah oper-
atives.
For years, Israel has tar-geted sites in Syria that it
says are being used by Iran
to transfer advanced weap-
ons to its affiliated forces
within range of Israel’s bor-
ders. In recent weeks, that
campaign’s footprint has ex-
panded to include Iraq,
where Israel was accused of
bombing an Iranian-con-
trolled base near Baghdad,
and now Lebanon.
“We will continue to take
determined and responsible
action against Iran and its
proxies for the security of Is-
rael,” Netanyahu tweeted on
Saturday in a rare public ac-
knowledgment of the attack
on Syria.
“I reiterate: Iran has no
immunity anywhere. Our
forces operate in every sec-
tor against the Iranian ag-
gression.”
In a briefing for journal-
ists, Israeli army Chief of
Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi
said, “Qassem Suleimani,
the al-Quds commander,
himself directed the
[thwarted] attack and [was]
personally training Shiite
militias preparing for it.”
Former Israeli national
security advisor Yaakov
Amidror, a retired military
intelligence officer, said that
“Israel is now in the middle
of a long effort to stop the
Iranians from building their
independent war machine in
Syria. They have one in Leb-
anon, controlled by Hezbol-
lah, and they want to build
an independent one in Syria
which will be controlled by
Iran directly.”
Amidror did not com-
ment on the incident near
Beirut except to note that
“Hezbollah has many ene-
mies.”Times staff writer Bulos
reported from Amman and
special correspondent
Tarnopolsky from
Jerusalem. Staff writer
Tracy Wilkinson in
Washington contributed to
this report.Drone attack angers Lebanon, militia
SUPPORTERSof the Shiite militia Hezbollah hoist flags and an image of a slain fighter at a rally in Lebanon.AFP/Getty ImagesHezbollah issues its
warning to Israel after
two craft struck Beirut
amid campaign against
Iran and its proxies.
By Nabih Bulos
and Noga Tarnopolsky
HONG KONG — Hong
Kong police drew their guns
and fired a warning shot
Sunday night after pro-
testers attacked officers
with sticks and rods, and
brought out water cannon
trucks for the first time, an
escalation in the summer-
long protests that have
shaken the city’s govern-
ment and residents.
The day’s main show-
down took place on a major
drag in the outlying Tsuen
Wan district after a protest
march that ended in a
nearby park. While a large
crowd rallied in the park, a
group of hard-line pro-
testers took over a main
street, strewing bamboo
poles on the pavement and
lining up orange and white
traffic barriers and cones to
obstruct police.
After hoisting warning
flags, police used tear gas to
try to disperse the crowd.
Protesters responded by
throwing bricks and gaso-
line bombs toward the po-
lice. The result was a surreal
scene of small fires and scat-
tered paving bricks on the
street between the two sides,
rising clouds of tear gas and
green and blue laser lights
pointed by the protesters at
the police.
The protesters eventu-
ally decided to abandon
their position. Two water
cannon trucks and a pha-
lanx of police vehicles with
flashing lights joined riot po-
lice on foot as they advanced
up the street. They met little
resistance. Television video
showed a water cannon be-
ing fired once, but perhaps
more as a test, because it
didn’t appear to reach the
retreating protesters.
Officers pulled their guns
after protesters chasedthem down a street with
sticks and rods, calling them
“gangsters.” The officers
held up their shields to de-
fend themselves as they re-
treated. Police said that one
officer fell to the ground and
six drew their pistols after
they were surrounded, with
one firing the warning shot.
Some protesters said
they’re resorting to violence
because the government has
not responded to their
peaceful demonstrations.
“The escalation you’re
seeing now is just a product
of our government’s indiffer-
ence toward the people of
Hong Kong,” said Rory
Wong, who was at the clash
after the march.Clashes in Hong Kong
A HONG KONG policeman points his gun during a
confrontation with pro-democracy protesters.Vincent YuAssociated PressPolice fire warning
shot and deploy water
cannons for first time.
associated press