Israeli civilian killed in pro-Iranian Hezbollah attack… Bombing near the US embassy

The war between Israel and the Palestinian armed faction Hamas is showing signs of expanding to surrounding areas.

An Israeli civilian was killed by a missile fired by Hezbollah, a pro-Iran armed faction in Lebanon, and a shell landed near the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

According to foreign media outlets such as Reuters on the 7th (local time), an Israeli military spokesman said that a civilian was killed in northern Israel due to a guided missile attack from Lebanon that day.

Israel said Hezbollah members carried out 11 anti-tank attacks, and the target of the attack was an Israeli army barracks in Matat, a northern Israeli town close to the Lebanese border. The Israeli man who died in Hezbollah’s missile attack was said to be a 60-year-old farmer.

The Israeli military mobilized fighter jets and carried out retaliatory airstrikes against Hezbollah headquarters and control centers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of this Hezbollah attack, “If Hezbollah starts an all-out war against Israel, our military can turn the Lebanese capital Beirut and southern Lebanon into the Gaza Strip and Khan Younis.”

He warned that Israel could launch a strong military operation against Hezbollah, just as it destroyed a large part of the Gaza Strip in Palestine in its effort to eradicate Hamas. However, Reuters reported that it was not immediately clear whether Prime Minister Netanyahu made these remarks when Israeli civilians were killed.

Since the start of this war on October 7, Hezbollah has been engaged in fighting with the Israeli army, with sporadic attacks centered on northern Israel. As a result of the Israeli military attack, about 110 Hezbollah members and civilians were killed on the Lebanese side.

On the 5th, casualties occurred in the Lebanese army when the Israeli army attacked Hezbollah positions. After Israel and Hamas entered into a temporary ceasefire on the 24th of last month, fighting stopped in the Israel-Lebanon border area.

However, when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended on the 1st of this month, Hezbollah resumed attacks targeting Israel.

Reuters, Sputnik, etc. also reported on the 8th that an explosion was heard near the US embassy in the ‘Green Zone’ of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, at around 4 am.

The Green Zone is a high-security area where foreign embassies, such as government buildings and U.S. embassies, are concentrated. It was also said that an alarm siren sounded inside the embassy building at the time.

The force claiming to be behind this attack has not yet emerged. It was not reported whether there were any casualties or whether the embassy air defense system was activated.

However, considering the recent anti-American sentiment in Iraq, the possibility that it was the work of pro-Iranian militants is gaining weight. In the Islamic world, anger toward Israel and others grew after Hamas claimed on October 17 that hundreds of people were killed in an Israeli bombing of a hospital in the Gaza Strip.

In particular, anti-American sentiment worsened as U.S. President Joe Biden visited Israel on the 18th and showed full support for Israel.

The United States has previously stationed troops in Iraq and Syria under the pretext of defeating the extremist militant group Islamic State (IS), but this war has triggered anti-American sentiment in the Arab world, which had previously distanced itself from Iran and its proxies, as well as Hamas. I was stimulated.

It has been calculated that more than 70 attacks targeting US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria have occurred since mid-October this year. However, Reuters reported that there have been no cases of diplomatic missions suffering direct damage.