IDF says it hit key commanders of IRGC’s Quds Force in Beirut

After reports of an Israeli airstrike in a Beirut hotel killing at least four, the IDF says it carried out a targeted strike on key commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

It says the targets were members of the Lebanon Corps of the Quds Force, the IRGC’s extraterritorial arm, who “acted to advance terror plans against the State of Israel and its citizens from Lebanese territory.”

The army adds: “The Iranian terror regime systematically operates among civilian populations in both Iran and Lebanon, cynically exploiting residents and using them as human shields to further terrorist objectives.”

It says it took various steps to minimize the risk to civilians, including the use of precision weaponry and aerial surveillance.

Lebanese officials say the strike killed at least four people. An AFP photographer at the bombed seafront hotel saw shattered windows and heavy damage to one room while security forces sealed off the area.

Ten people were also injured in the attack on Beirut’s Raouche area, the Lebanese health ministry says in a statement.