Nasrallah's killing reveals depth of Israel's penetration of Hezbollah

In the wake of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's killing, Hezbollah faces the enormous challenge of plugging the infiltration in its ranks that allowed its arch enemy Israel to destroy weapons sites, booby-trap its communications and assassinate the veteran leader, whose whereabouts had been a closely guarded secret for years.

Nasrallah's killing in a command HQ on Friday came barely a week after Israel's deadly detonation of hundreds of booby-trapped pagers and radios. It was the culmination of a rapid succession of strikes that have eliminated half of Hezbollah's leadership council and decimated its top military command.

In the days before and hours after Nasrallah's killing, Reuters spoke to more than a dozen sources in Lebanon, Israel, Iran and Syria who provided details of the damage Israel has wrought on the powerful Shi'ite paramilitary group, including to its supply lines and command structure. All asked for anonymity to speak about sensitive matters.

One source familiar with Israeli thinking told Reuters, less than 24 hours before the strike, that Israel has spent 20 years focusing intelligence efforts on Hezbollah and could hit Nasrallah when it wanted, including in the headquarters.

The person called the intelligence "brilliant," without providing details.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close circle of ministers authorized the attack on Wednesday, two Israeli officials told Reuters. The attack took place while Netanyahu was in New York to speak at the U.N. General Assembly.

Nasrallah had avoided public appearances since a previous 2006 war. He had long been vigilant, his movements were restricted and the circle of people he saw was very small, according to a source familiar with Nasrallah's security arrangements. The assassination suggested his group had been infiltrated by informants for Israel, the source said.

The Hezbollah leader had been even more cautious than usual since the Sept. 17 pager blasts, out of concern Israel would try to kill him, a security source familiar with the group's thinking told Reuters a week ago, citing his absence from a commanders' funeral and his pre-recording of a speech broadcast a few days before.

Hezbollah's media office did not respond to a request for comment for this story. U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday called Nasrallah's killing "a measure of justice" for his many victims, and said the United States fully supported Israel's right to defend itself against Iranian-backed groups.

Israel says it carried out the hit on Nasrallah by dropping bombs on the underground headquarters below a residential building in southern Beirut.

"This is a massive blow and intelligence failure for Hezbollah," Magnus Ranstorp, a veteran Hezbollah expert at the Swedish Defence University said. "They knew that he was meeting. He was meeting with other commanders. And they just went for him."

Including Nasrallah, Israel's military says it has killed eight of Hezbollah's nine most senior military commanders this year, mostly in the past week. These commanders led units ranging from the rocket division to the elite Radwan force.

Around 1,500 Hezbollah fighters were maimed by the exploding pagers and walkie talkies on Sept. 17 and Sept. 18.

On Saturday, Israel's military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters in a briefing that the military had "real-time" knowledge that Nasrallah and other leaders were gathering. Shoshani did not say how they knew, but said the leaders were meeting to plan attacks on Israel.

Brigadier General Amichai Levin, commander of Israel's Hatzerim Airbase, told reporters that dozens of munitions hit the target within seconds.

"The operation was complex and was planned for a long time," according to Levin.

DEPLETED

Hezbollah has shown the ability to replace commanders quickly, and Nasrallah's cousin Hashem Safieddine, also a cleric who wears the black turban denoting descent from Islam's Prophet Mohammed, has long been tipped as his successor.

"You kill one, they get a new one," said a European diplomat of the group's approach.

The group, whose name means Party of God, will fight on: by U.S. and Israeli estimates it had some 40,000 fighters ahead of the current escalation, along with large weapons stockpiles and an extensive tunnel network near Israel's border.

Founded in Tehran in 1982, the Shi'ite paramilitary outfit is the most formidable member of Iran's so-called Axis of Resistance of anti-Israel allied irregular forces, and a significant regional player in its own right.

But it has been materially and psychologically weakened over the past 10 days.

Thanks to decades of backing from Iran, prior to the current conflict Hezbollah was among the world's most well-armed non-conventional armies, with an arsenal of 150,000 rockets, missiles and drones, according to U.S. estimates.

That is ten times the size of the armoury the group had in 2006, during its last war with Israel, according to Israeli estimates.

Over the past year, even more weapons have flowed into Lebanon from Iran, along with significant amounts of financial aid, a source familiar with Hezbollah's thinking said.

There have been few detailed public assessments of how much this arsenal has been damaged by Israel's offensive over the past week, which has hit Hezbollah strongholds in Bekka Valley, far from Lebanon's border with Israel.

One Western diplomat in the Middle East told Reuters prior to Friday's attack that Hezbollah had lost 20%-25% of its missile capacity in the ongoing conflict, including in hundreds of Israeli strikes this week. The diplomat did not provide evidence or details of their assessment.

A map of Israel's airstrikes on Lebanon from Sep. 21-23.

An Israeli security official said "a very respectable portion" of Hezbollah's missile stocks had been destroyed, without giving further specifics.

In recent days, Israel has struck more than 1,000 Hezbollah targets. The security official, when asked about the military's extensive target lists, said Israel had matched Hezbollah's two-decade build up with preparations to prevent it launching its rockets in the first place - a complement to the Iron Dome air defence system that often downs missiles fired at the Jewish state.

Israeli officials say the fact that Hezbollah has only been able to launch a couple of hundred missiles a day in the past week was evidence its capabilities had been diminished.

IRAN CONNECTION

Before the strike on Nasrallah, three Iranian sources told Reuters Iran was planning to send additional missiles to Hezbollah to prepare for a prolonged war.

The weapons that were to be provided included short-to-medium-range ballistic missiles including Iranian Zelzals and an upgraded precision version known as the Fateh 110, the first Iranian source said.

Reuters was unable to reach the sources after the Nasrallah assassination.

While Iran is willing to provide military support, the two Iranian sources said it does not want to be directly involved in a confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel. The rapid escalation in hostilities over the past week follows a year of skirmishes tied to the Gaza war.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards' deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in the Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday, Iranian media reported on Saturday, citing a state TV report.

Hezbollah may need certain warheads and missiles along with drones and missile parts to replenish those destroyed by Israeli strikes across Lebanon last week, a senior Syrian military intelligence source added.

Iranian supplies have in the past reached Hezbollah by air and sea. On Saturday, Lebanon's transport ministry told an Iranian aircraft not to enter its airspace after Israel warned air traffic control at Beirut airport that it would use "force" if the plane landed, a source at the ministry told Reuters.

The source said it was not clear what was on the plane.

Land corridors are currently the best route for missiles, parts and drones, through Iraq and Syria, with the help of allied armed groups in those countries, an Iranian security official told Reuters this week.

The Syrian military source, however, said Israeli drone surveillance and strikes targeting convoys of trucks had compromised that route. This year, Israel stepped up attacks on weapons depots and supply routes in Syria to weaken Hezbollah ahead of any war, Reuters reported in June.

As recently as August, an Israeli drone hit weapons concealed in commercial trailers in Syria, the source said. This week, Israel's military said its warplanes bombed unspecified infrastructure used to transfer weapons to Hezbollah at the Syria-Lebanon border.

Joseph Votel, a former army general who led U.S. forces in the Middle East, said Israel and its allies could well intercept any missiles Iran sent by land to Hezbollah now.

"That might be a risk they're willing to take, frankly," he said.

** Iran's supreme leader taken to secure location, sources say

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been taken to a secure location inside Iran amid heightened security, sources told Reuters, a day after Israel killed the head of Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah in a strike on Beirut.

The move to safeguard Iran's top decision-maker is the latest show of nervousness by the Iranian authorities as Israel launched a series of devastating attacks on Hezbollah, Iran's best armed and most well-equipped ally in the region.

Reuters reported this month that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, the ideological guardians of the Islamic Republic, had ordered all of members to stop using any type of communication devices after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah blew up.

Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel was behind the pager and walkie-talkie attacks. Israel neither denied nor confirmed involvement.

The two regional officials briefed by Tehran and who told Reuters that Khamenei had been moved to a safe location also said Iran was in contact with Hezbollah and other regional proxy groups to determine the next step after Nasrallah's killing.

The sources declined to be identified further due to the sensitivity of the matter.

As well as killing Nasrallah, Friday's strikes by Israel on Beirut killed Revolutionary Guards' deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Other Revolutionary Guard's commanders have also been killed since the Gaza War erupted last year and violence flared elsewhere.

Khamenei issued a statement later on Saturday, following Israel's announcement that Nasrallah had been killed, saying: "The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront."

"The blood of the martyr shall not go unavenged," he said in a separate statement, in which he announced five days of mourning to mark Nasrallah's death.

Nasrallah's death is a major blow to Iran, removing an influential ally who helped build Hezbollah into the linchpin of Tehran's constellation of allied groups in the Arab world.

Iran's network of regional allies, known as the 'Axis of Resistance', stretch from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in Gaza, Iran-backed militias in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen.

Hamas has been fighting a war with Israel for almost a year, since its fighters stormed into Israel on Oct. 7. The Houthis, meanwhile, have launched missiles at Israel and at ships sailing in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea along the Yemeni coast.

Hezbollah has been engaged in exchanges of fire across the Lebanese border throughout the Gaza War and has repeatedly said it would not stop until there was a ceasefire in Gaza.

After the pager and walkie-talkies strikes, one Iranian security official told Reuters that a large-scale operation was underway by the Revolutionary Guards to inspect all communications devices. He said most of these devices were either homemade or imported from China and Russia.

The official said Iran was concerned about infiltration by Israeli agents, including Iranians on Israel's payroll and a thorough investigation of personnel has already begun, targeting mid and high-ranking members of the Revolutionary Guards.

In another statement on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the United States had played a role in Nasrallah's killing as a supplier of weapons to Israel.

"The Americans cannot deny their complicity with the Zionists," he said in the statement carried by state media.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian attacks on hospital in Ukraine's Sumy kill 10, Kyiv says

Russia attacked a hospital in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine early on Saturday, killing 10 people and injuring at least 22 others, Ukrainian officials said.

Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said "loitering munitions" - or suicide drones - hit the Saint Panteleimon Clinical Hospital in two attacks 45 minutes apart.

"Most of the fatalities occurred during the second strike, which hit as first responders arrived at the site and patients attempted to evacuate," she said.

Sumy's regional administration said late on Saturday that 10 people had been killed and 22 injured, including 15 who were in hospital, five of them in serious condition. All the hospital's patients were evacuated to other facilities, it added.

Sumy City Council said on its website that nine high-rise buildings were damaged in addition to the hospital.

Bell said she had been in Sumy last week following up on a deadly Sept. 19 attack on a geriatric centre in which at least one civilian had been killed and 13 injured, and recalled an Aug. 13 attack on another hospital complex in the city.

"Medical facilities are protected under international humanitarian law and are entitled to special protection. They must not be the object of attack," she said, adding that 33 civilians had been killed and 132 injured in Sumy city and the surrounding region since Aug. 6.

Ukrainian prosecutors said that at the time of the Saturday morning attacks 86 patients and 38 staff members were in the hospital.

DRONE ATTACKS

The hospital shared a photograph on its Facebook page it said showed one of those killed, a nurse and mother of two daughters named Tatiana Tikhonova.

"The first attack killed one person and damaged the ceilings of several floors of the hospital," Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.

"Everyone in the world who talks about this war should pay attention to where Russia is hitting. They are fighting hospitals, civilian objects and people's lives," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram.

"Only force can force Russia to peace. Peace through force is the only right way."

Klymenko did not specify what weapons were used in Saturday's attacks. The regional administration and air forces said the strike was carried out by drones, which Bell identified as loitering munitions.

Attacks on Sumy city and the Sumy region have become more frequent since Ukrainian forces launched an operation in Russia's Kursk region in August and captured dozens of settlements.

Sumy city is located just 32 km (20 miles) from the Russian border, and Russian forces, which began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have been attacking the region and the city with drones and guided bombs.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Most Ukrainian soldiers last only a few days – FT

The Ukrainian military has been so depleted by attrition that new infantry troops are often unfit for combat and flee at the first sign of fighting, the Financial Times reported on Friday. In some units, around two thirds of soldiers are reportedly killed or wounded within days of arriving at the front.

Manpower shortages have plagued the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) for well over a year, according to reports in Ukrainian and Western media outlets. After multiple rounds of conscription, the average age of a Ukrainian soldier is now 45, and many of those sent to the front are unfit for combat, multiple commanders and soldiers told the British newspaper.

“When the new guys get to the position, a lot of them run away at the first shell explosion,” a deputy commander fighting near Ugledar in Donetsk Region said. Another commander whose unit is attempting to hold the nearby town of Khurakove said that “some guys freeze [because] they are too afraid to shoot the enemy, and then they are the ones who leave in body bags or severely wounded.” 

The commanders estimated that 50-70% of new infantry troops are killed or wounded within days of starting their first rotation.

Russian forces have gained ground near Ugledar, Khurakove, and the key logistics hub of Povrovsk in recent weeks. Many of the AFU’s most experienced troops were pulled from this sector of the front in August to take part in the invasion of Russia’s Kursk Region, an operation that has cost Kiev more than 17,750 servicemen, over 130 tanks, and hundreds of other combat vehicles, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Experienced soldiers “are being killed off too quickly” and replaced by older and less fit men, another commander told the Financial Times. “As infantry, you need to run, you need to be strong, you need to carry heavy equipment,” he said, adding: “It’s hard to do that if you aren’t young.” 

As of May, the Ukrainian military has been drafting 30,000 soldiers per month. However, AFU Commander-in-Chief General Aleksandr Syrsky admitted earlier this month that these new recruits are often sent to fight with as little as six weeks’ training. The commanders who spoke to the Financial Times said that they consider this training worthless, as many of the AFU’s instructors haven’t seen combat themselves.

“Some of them don’t even know how to hold their rifles,” one officer said. “They peel more potatoes than they shoot bullets,” he complained, explaining that he had bought paintball guns in order to teach his new men how to shoot without wasting ammunition.

Those who survive often go AWOL after their first rotation, while others are so shell-shocked and exhausted that they are checked into psychiatric wards, the newspaper reported. With the AFU under no legal obligation to demobilize troops, joining the army or getting conscripted is viewed by recruits as “a one-way ticket,” a ten-year veteran told the Financial Times.

While the Ukrainian military does not publish casualty figures, the Russian Defense Ministry estimates Kiev’s losses since February 2022 at around half a million men.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, however, maintains that with more Western weapons and money, Russia can be “forced into peace.”Moscow considers Zelensky’s belief in military victory “delusional,”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week.

Reuters/RT

On February 18, 1947, the Daily Service newspaper published a story whose theme, like the ancient Secretarybird, has remained with Nigeria ever since. It is a story of the affinity between sex and corruption. Son of Alake of Egbaland and a no-nonsense judge, Adetokunbo Ademola, then of the Lagos Santa Anna Magistrate Court, presided over the matter. After the wotowoto of the prosecution and defence, Ademola sentenced a female welfare officer, Ayodele Potts-Johnson, to six months imprisonment, without an option of fine. Potts-Johnson’s crime was demanding and collecting bribes of the sums of #5.30s and 25s.2d. from two prostitutes, Elizabeth Agadagwu and Alice George, in order to stave them off the wrath of the law. Christened by the Nigerian press of the time a “sensational celebrated official corruption,” the scandal had famous African and British lawyers, led by FRA Williams, and which included E. A. Akerele, J.A. Kester, N.O.A Morgan and V.O Munis, as defence counsel. In his book, When Sex Threatened The State, (2015) Saheed Aderinto, award-winning author, filmmaker and Nigerian American Professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University, doubled down on the story for his hypothesis. It is that, the popular notion that bribery and corruption were postcolonial vices that erupted in Nigeria in the wake of military rule, was not only unreal but a-historical.

Immediately the prostitutes were apprehended, rather than the office, Potts-Johnson escorted them to their homes. There, upon demanding #10 as bribe, the welfare officer was offered #5.30s by Agadagwu’s landlord, one Bakare, who negotiated the bribe sum with Potts-Johnson in Yoruba. Bakare promised Agadagwu would pay the balance later. The other prostitute, George, also offered the welfare officer 5s.2d. from the bribe amount demanded. If they hadn’t paid the bribes, upon conviction in court, the prostitutes risked two years in prison, #50 fine and repatriation by government from Lagos. But immediately after paying the initial bribes, the prostitutes reported it to the police. The Lagos police then handed them marked notes which represented the balance of the bribe money, on which was covertly inscribed, Wayo. The police also planted an undercover Sheriff to witness the bribery. When Toviho, Potts-Johnson’s middleman, came to collect the bribe money, he and the welfare officer were arrested.

In my piece of February 6, 2022 with the title, Atiku Abubakar and the sexual history of the Nigerian presidency, I explored this theme. I submitted that sexual politics defines and is often behind most of the corruption issues in high and low places in the world. A musical track rendered by Lagos Epe-born Apala music lord, Ligali Mukaiba in the 1970s illustrates this. The particular Mukaiba track speaks about the pervasive influence of women in the lives of men, comparable only to drugs on addicts. He sang “Mi o wa ri’hun t’obinrin o le fi’ni se, t’o ba nwu’ni, t’o ba nj’araba eni, t’o ba l’o ya ni Sokoto, kuru kere o, kere o, kuru kere o, a o tele l’eyin ni…”

Using the lurid story that instantly went viral in Zimbabwe that former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, had suffered “a nasty blow from below” – euphemism for impotency – I drilled into how central and virile political power is and how men of power, through their libido, use sex as a locus of power. Attached to that, I argued, is why, agreeing with Prof Wale Adebanwi in his journal article he entitled The Carnality of Power, that all of us – scholars, lay scholars and society as a whole – “need to pay greater attention to the ways in which obscenity can help explain the nature of power.” From Abubakar, to Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, I used these men of power as examples of exercises of virile members, to explain how libidinous politics and corruption cannot be divorced in Nigeria’s socio-politics.

Sorry, I digressed. A major obscene scandal broke out last week. It will seem to annotate the above theme of the need for us to pay more regards to obscenities in our analysis of society. It is a narrative which tangentially bears the colour of sex, though it smells more of corruption. With it, we can measure the barometer of how low our society has sunk and how political and social powers are implicated in the rot of our society. The story starred controversial cross-dresser jailbird, Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, whose allegedly leaked audio conversation has created a national mess. If the authenticity of the video is confirmed, Bobrisky’s travails will bring back to memory an ancient Yoruba folklore of a man called Alade. Alade was a gentleman whose mutual friend had asked why he always wore his cap all the time. After much pressure, Alade decided to share the secret with this mutual friend, but on one condition – it must be kept secret from humanity. Alade then removed his cap, revealing a short stumpy horn around the frontal part of his head. His friend was shocked but promised to keep the secret. However, he could not stomach the secret for long. Keeping to the terms of not telling any human being, one day, the friend dug a hole into which he screamed, “Alade grew a horn (on the head)!” – Àlàdé hù'wo! Mysteriously, a tree sprang up from the hole and soon after, whenever boys blew a flute near it, the tree echoed, “Àlàdé hù'wo!” With this, the entire village got to know about Alade's best kept secret.

A social media influencer, Martins Otse, also known as VeryDarkMan, had circulated an audio conversation Bobrisky allegedly had with an unnamed Alade. It instantly went viral. In it, someone, said to be Bobrisky, alleged that he paid the sum of N15 million to unnamed EFCC officers to have a charge of money laundering spiked off the criminal charges preferred by the state against him. The cross-dresser had been jailed six months after he admitted guilt for dealing unkindly with the Nigerian Naira. However, in the same audio, the Bobrisky claimed that he spent her term in an apartment, as against the Nigerian correctional centre imposed by the court. Shortly after the allegation, the cross-dresser refuted the accusations on his Instagram page. He claimed he was victim of a setup. Both the EFCC and Minister of the Interior have ordered full-scale investigations into the scandal, with the ministry of interior taking a bolder step in suspending all the prisons officers in charge of Bobrisky’s term in the Lagos Kirikiri prison.

Beyond the theme of crime and corruption in the Bobrisky case is the Nigerian society’s disdain for considered unusual sexuality and in particular, Okuneye’s audacity to flaunt it. As a measure of its conservatism, the Yoruba frown at counting the fingers of a nine-fingered person in their presence (a kii t’oju oni’ka mesan kaa.) In my April 7, 2024 piece with the title, Bobrisky and Jesus, the tax collector, written immediately the cross-dresser was jailed, I said this much. If you flip through the pages of history, you will discover, as I said in the piece, that from ancient times, the world has never hidden its hostility towards people who profess sexual orientation different from its heterosexual conservative status. This is also responsible for why a large chunk of the black world vents its anger on the western world’s validation of homosexuality. In the 19th century and even before, Bobriskys were lynched like common criminals. Their sin was their considered unusual sexuality. Until then, homosexual activities were classified as “unnatural crime against nature,” while sodomy got punished with, sometimes death penalty.

In comparison with his unusual sexuality forebears, Bobrisky has suffered one of the mildest fates. Between 1877 and 1950, over 4,000 of them were lynched. It subsisted till a few years ago in America. So, when you appraise the collage of apparent gang-ups – VeryDarkMan and others – against Bobrisky, you will get an affirmation of the Yoruba saying that he who does the unusual should be ready for infliction of an unusual reprisal (eni ba se’un t’enikan o se ri, aa ri’un t’enikan o ri ri). Bobrisky’s travails seem to be society’s attempt to deconstruct and destroy this unusual sexuality impresario. When you examine this thesis against the backcloth of Bobrisky’s recent innuendo that he could commit suicide, you will agree with me that the self-touted Mommy of Lagos is in the gulag of a conservative society and may never get out of it alive. If you ask me, I think Bobrisky commodifies her cross-dressing, using it as façade for God-knows-what unpleasant money-making ventures.

The allegation that Bobrisky paid bribe to the EFCC for a money laundering charge to be removed then crept in. The viral audio, amplified by VeryDarkMan, also alleged that he paid bribe to prison top officials to enable him serve his term outside the hostile walls of the Kirikiri prison. On this, all we have been entertained with since last week when the obscene scandal broke is a national breakfast of hypocrisy. Why are Nigerians feigning prudery at these scandalous revelations? Are we hearing about a story of this stench for the first time? Let us hop down from our high horses. If truth be told, the only way to reform this country is for both the leaders and the led to come clean with themselves. Nigeria is a thoroughly worsted place and all the bounds and parameters of societal civility, decency and global norms of civilized people have broken down irretrievably. I personally overheard an Edo-born prison warder detailed to a politically exposed person arraigned before the Lagos Federal High Court some years ago, saying, “Mek dem post me to (I am hiding the politician’s identity) mek I no buy car? He no go happen!” Last year, we witnessed an obscene altercation between DSS operatives and prison officials, right in the premises of the court. Their beef was on who owned custodial power over embattled Godwin Emefiele. And apparently, his loot. It was later that Nigerians found out that the scuffle was not strictly a turf battle; it was a graft fight, something in the mould of a robber robs the till and a thief robs the robber (ole gbe, ole gbaa.)

Like Nigeria, the prison is brimming with rotund-bellied maggots which reflect the collapse of virtually all the values that cobbled Nigeria together. Apart from decayed infrastructure, overcrowding and allied issues, Nigerian prisons are home to officers who, in saner societies, should themselves be in prison. In 2019, investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, adopting the pseudonym, Ojo Olajumoke, spent five days in a police cell and eight days as an inmate in Ikoyi Prison. It was in the bid to track corruption in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. There was no single whimper from the Nigerian establishment. After Soyombo’s arrest and detention in police custody, he was arraigned in court and ultimately got a remand in prison. He emerged with very distressing stories of illegitimate arrests, extrajudicial killings, bribery and corruption and a criminal justice system that is in a sorry case. He even claimed that a prison official asked him for money to remove his name from jailbirds’ roster.

If Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo is merely interested in the optics of being perceived as proactive, in order to save his job from the Sword of Damocles said to be hanging on ministers, he should let us know. But if he is genuinely interested in reforming Nigerian prisons, he surely has a humongous job on his hands. It is more demanding than the “I swear-to-Almighty-God” raising-of-a-finger he was embroiled in last week. Yoruba talk about how widespread a covertly released fart could go in its “B’a se nyo’so, l’a se nyo’gbo” aphorism. The Bobrisky allegation of Very Important Prisoners being ferried out of jail while serving their terms is almost as old as corruption in Nigeria. We have heard of a VIP who impregnated his wife while serving his term and who was present at the child’s christening. We have also heard a story, which occurred some twenty-something years ago, of a man who later rose to become a senator and a political party bigwig. While in detention for alleged murder, exhibiting his libidinous prowess, the girl procured for this Very Important Detainee in an apartment outside of prison had fainted under him. If indeed, as it is said, that a people is assessed by the way it treats its most vulnerable, prisoners are vulnerable lots and we should be interested in what goes on inside that nocturne called prison. Until Nigerian prisons become reformatory, as opposed to the place of torment it is today, it will continue to be a microcosm of our macroscopic Nigerian tragedy.

It will be gratifying if Olanipekun Olukoyede, the EFCC chair, on hearing the messy news that his operatives were sunk in the Bobrisky N15m scandal, is silently preparing earthly purgatory for them. He must do as the colonial police did in 1947 to Ayodele Potts-Johnson. This is time for Olukoyede to peel himself of his church mien and wear the garb of a Dracula. Otherwise, he will be dragging in the mud his pastoral calling claim, perceived to be atypical with the task of a crime fighter. If news circulating in Nigeria from those who experience Olukoyede’s men in all parts of the country is anything to go by, he is sitting atop a maggots’ empire where operatives are nothing more than armed gunmen who terrorize and extort criminals of their loots. These Wayo theatrics, in the name of crime fighting and law enforcement, has to stop.

Kabiyesi Ladoja @80

A blight that critics hold against newspaper column writers is that sometimes, our shots go off tangent, disenabling us from achieving precision. In the process, they claim, we mis-profile our subjects, literally calling the King’s Mother (Iya Oba) the Monkey Mother (Iya Obo). My reply to them is that, column writers are not infallible because they are columnists… Full stop! My reply is a timid parodying of Chukwudifu Oputa’s locus classicus statement about the Supreme Court. I can’t go the whole hog and delve into its second stanza due to its potential for immodesty. Only Oputa, the great jurist, could so conclude about the Almightiness of the final appellate court.

The extreme ones among the critics compare column-writing’s sometimes imprecision to the proverbial Saare whose demonstration of knowledge resulted in unknowledge. One day, Saare went to the farm but rushed back home, panting. To his parents who were troubled on what went amiss, the young hunter told them they should show gratitude to their Maker because he was almost devoured by a leopard which strayed from the forest. And then, Saare began a description of the strange animal. “It had big, dilating eyes! It had arresting colour!” features his parents affirmed were a leopard’s (Ekun). Immediately, Saare’s father, an Ifa priest, ordered objects of sacrifice to appreciate and propitiate Saare’s “head.” When all the propitiation materials arrived – a big ram, red oil and others – in readiness for the sacrifice, unprompted, Saare then lullabied, in his flippant best: “The leopard was tall, had two huge horns! It was even eating okra!” Saare’s parents immediately apologized to the sacrificial crew: “Our son didn’t see a leopard. He saw a deer.” So, Yoruba say, amonju l’o b’ekun Saare je.

In my 26 years of column writing, (including the years of exits) I have had several bull’s-eye hits and some imprecisions. Two personalities stand out on the list of subjects who, in reviews of their personalities, I sometimes shot off tangent. They were, Late Adebayo Alao-Akala and Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, ex-governors of Oyo State. When they were both in government, my pen tormented them severally. On meeting Alao-Akala years after he left government, I encountered a man whose heart was as pure as spring water and whose humanity was one every mortal should seek after. When he asked me to write the Foreword to his memoir, Amazing Grace, like a witch’s confession, as the Yoruba will say, I was contrite, “mo tuuba.” While I am incapable of excusing their politics and governance, I can say both are/were great personalities.

In my writings and media strategies while I was myself in office, I wasn’t kind to Ladoja at all. Yet, we never met. However, in October, 2020, we met for the first and last time at the University of Ibadan. I was privileged to be on the high table with him, during a symposium organized by Babs Oduyoye to mark his birthday. I don’t know where I got the audacity, but I walked up to him and introduced myself. He was literally overjoyed to meet me, thrust his hand forward excitedly and we shook hands like they did while signing the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). What he said about his estimation of me, rather than excite me, saddened me. How could I spend a large chunk of my writings demonizing a man who thought so highly of me? A couple of years later when talks centered on his biography, one of his ‘sons’ told me he was excited at the prospect of my writing it. I was saddened the more. This was the same thing Alao-Akala did to me: he handed me a raw manuscript and said, “except the title, you are at liberty to do anything with it!”

Since then, I have drilled into Ladoja’s persona. Brilliant strategist and engineer, his strongest point is that his political adversaries underrate him. As wealthy as he is, Ladoja is known for his deconstruction of wealth, both in sartorial outlook and materialism. He could be stubborn too, sticking to what he believes in, at the risk of ostracism.

Born on September 25, 1944 in Gambari village, near Ibadan and becoming a Director of the defunct Standard Trust Bank in the year 2000, last Tuesday was Ladoja’s 80th birthday. Here is wishing Oba Ladoja many more years of good health on earth.

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place ~ 2 Corinthians 2:14.

Introduction

Deep inside the heart of every normal person on earth is a passionate desire to fulfill the purpose for which he is created. That passion unknowingly forms the basis of the bulk of our intentional prayers unto God, and that’s the cry of destiny: a cry for that one thing that is worthy of your one life.

Once you discover it, and avoid all distractions, removing whatever clogs your mind and giving it all it takes, you will certainly rise unobstructed to become an outstanding man/woman upon the earth.

Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "We succeed in life as in war, only as we are able to identify a single, over-riding objective, and then bend all other considerations to that one thing."

If I may ask, what’s the one thing that overrides all other considerations in your life? What noble purpose captures your spirit? What deep resolve beats in your heart? What great decision has won your full allegiance in life? That one thing, ladies and gentlemen, is what defines what you’ll eventually become on earth!

Certainly, you were created to fulfil a definite purpose. You belong to a well-defined place in life. You were separated from your mother’s womb unto a definite plan of God. You were not destined for shame but for His glory.

In the generic sense of it, all the followers of Jesus are destined to glorify God, and to reign with Christ on earth. Indeed, your destiny is that of glory that doesn’t fade (Romans 8:29-30)! This is not based upon us, but rather upon Christ. Even our future glory is hinged upon His glory.

Gleaning from Hebrews 2:5-13, we can see very clearly the radiant and the resplendent beauty of the believers’ destiny in Christ. Meanwhile, whereas this glorious destiny was once ruined by sin, it has now been fully reclaimed by Jesus Christ. He got right what Adam got wrong!

Today, God always causes us to triumph in Christ, making us strong to overcome through Christ and making it possible for Christ to lead us to victory. This is made possible through the redemption package (Galatians 3:13-15; Colossians 1:12-14).

However, our destiny must be unbarred and unlocked for us to be truly triumphant on our journey of life! Friends, let’s dress up and go up with our destinies in the hands of God our Maker. It’s time for total triumph in Christ!

The Brutal Challenges of Destiny

In life, there are many enemies that specialize in warring against the rise of destiny, and to be ignorant of this fact is to have chosen to dwell longer than necessary on the sad wings of destiny, or to have resigned to lifelong toil and frustration.

Truth is, the path of destiny has many turns – up turns and down turns. Ditches are on both sides, and potholes are plenty with mounds of debris inconveniently strewn all about.

Yes, there are days when you happily walk with a company of kind and passionate pilgrims, who lift your spirit with renewed aspiration, but there are also occasions when you walk the lonesome valley of life all by yourself, alone! These are the inevitable variables of life, forcefully interacting and constantly aiming to re-condition destinies here on earth.

Thankfully, the Christian man, who truly follows Christ up to Calvary's mountain, is on the path that leads ever forward. Yes, we’re on the triumphant trudge, and the unmistakable tones of victory attend our every move, for each move is always onward and ever upward (Isaiah 40:31). Alleluia!

The Beauty of Triumphing In Christ Jesus

To triumph means to be victorious over the challenges and the enemies of our destinies. It also means to surmount barriers and obstacles on the paths of our callings or assignments in life.

Meanwhile, triumph is usually much wider in context than victory! Whereas victory simply refers to the final defeat of an enemy (or an opponent), triumph denotes a victory that is especially noteworthy because it is decisive, significant or spectacular.

In ancient Rome, a triumphal trail was usually a solemn, glamorous and public honour conferred on a victorious general. It was always a reward of national honor for a final and decisive victory, which included a magnificent procession through the city.

Paul referred to this kind of triumph in 2 Corinthians 2:14. Our triumph in Christ implies not only victory, but also an open manifestation of it. This triumphant state of honour and dignity is made possible specifically for those who are born of God in Christ Jesus (1 John 4:4; 5:4).

No doubt, there is excellent beauty in triumph, and we must all go for it in our journeys of destiny. The “overcomers” sit with Christ in glory and honour (Revelation 3:21-22). They also walk in the perpetual light of God (Revelation 21:24-26).

Friends and brethren, we must always position ourselves well enough for this sure triumph in Christ. The place you stand and the way you stand always determine how you will withstand the enemies and the challengers (Ephesians 6:10-16).

As a child of God, you’re fully secure in Christ because of His finished work on your behalf (Revelation 12:11). Stand firmly in Him and in His righteousness. Let your faith be constantly active to appropriate the blessings, always remembering that true and total triumph are possible only in Christ Jesus!

No one can really fathom the glorious life that awaits us as the redeemed people of God if we only hold tight unto Him by faith (John 16:33). No matter the challenges, tribulations or trials, they will always result in glory if we only keep ourselves safe in His loving grip. You won’t miss this, in Jesus Name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola

SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987

Bolaji Ogundimu had only recently been appointed as my secretary when she put in an application for a housing loan. I had put aside a lump sum of money that could be borrowed by my staff interest-free. This was operated as a round-robin. As some pay back every month, new loans could be disbursed.

However, Bolaji’s chances of getting a loan in the short term were slim because many others were in the queue before her.

But then two “good Samaritans” came to see me. They insisted that Bolaji should be given a loan right away.

What kind of favouritism is this, I wondered? “Bolaji has just applied,” I pointed out. “There are so many others who applied before her and are yet to receive. How could you, in good conscience, argue that she should leapfrog over those she met in the queue? Won’t people say she is being favoured because she happens to be my secretary?”

Bolaji’s “lawyers” were not easily dissuaded. “The problem,” they said, “is that Bolaji’s condition is a bit desperate. We have seen where she lives and feel something needs to be done for her very urgently.”

“How would you feel,” I asked them, “if you were one of those who applied before Bolaji? Would you be so understanding then?”

I put my foot down. “We must do things by the book. We must be fair and be seen to be fair. Bolaji will be given a loan when it is her turn. In the meantime, there is nothing I can do.”

Guilty as charged

I was on a trip to New York when the Lord revisited the issue of Bolaji’s housing loan. Suddenly He asked me:

“Femi, do you love Me?”

“Of course, I love you,” I replied immediately.

But then the Lord continued: “Femi, you don’t love Me.”

I was nothing less than devastated.

“How could you say I don’t love you?” I protested.

“So how come you did not give My son a housing loan?” He continued.

Then I knew I was really in trouble. When the Lord reprimands you concerning someone and then refers to that person endearingly as “My son,” you know you are really in trouble. If the Lord calls Bolaji (who happens to be a woman) “My son,” what does that make me?

“But Bolaji is not qualified for the loan,” I insisted. “There are many other people in the queue before her.”

“What would qualify Bolaji for the housing loan?” the Lord wanted to know.

By this time, I was past argument. My face was simply covered in tears. The Lord pointed out that He had sent two people to me to impress on me the deplorable state of Bolaji’s housing condition. Nevertheless, I failed to respond out of adherence to my so-called principles of fairness.

Then came another bombshell. “You have to make up your mind whether you are going to follow your principles or follow Me.”

I cried non-stop for the next two days. It was deliberately on a weekend, and I could not reach Bolaji until Monday, as she did not have her phone. On Monday morning, I phoned her in my office to apologise to her. I asked her to forgive me for being insensitive to her housing situation.

I told her to take the money for her rent from my office safe, which she operated. “It is not a loan,” I said. “It is a gift from me.” That way, the procedure of the housing loan scheme was not violated. Nobody could accuse me of discrimination. But the love of God had found a way to deal with Bolaji’s urgent housing problem.

The set-up

I thought I was in the clear until the day I was leaving New York to come back to Lagos. First, I wasted some time by haggling with the taxi driver over the fare from Canarsie to John F. Kennedy Airport. It is normally 20 dollars, but he insisted it was 25. Then the queue at the Swiss Air check-in section was slower than usual.

When I finally got to the counter, there was a malfunction with the computer. The lady attendant sought the assistance of a supervisor, who came to fix the problem. I waited, while they discussed, analysed, and fiddled with whatever was on the screen. This went on for about twenty minutes when suddenly another gentleman came to announce that the counter was closed.

Closed? I could not believe my ears. “How could the counter be closed?” I protested. “I have been waiting here for the last twenty minutes while your colleagues have been trying to fix a fault on this terminal.”

I heard the man’s response correctly. I was supposed to hear him. He said to me: “According to the principles of Swiss Air, this terminal closes at six o’clock. Once it is six o’clock, no more passengers are taken on board the plane.”

The man was not one to argue. After he dropped this bombshell, he simply walked away.

I was in a panic. My situation had become rather desperate. I had only $100 left on me. I could not afford to stay any longer in New York. I just had to get on that plane.

And then I heard that still small voice of the Holy Spirit. “So, Femi,” He asked, “how do you intend to get on the plane? They have principles too at Swiss Air.”

Reversal of fortunes

I had been set up by none other than the Holy Spirit. The Lord had brought about a reversal of fortunes. With the housing loan scheme, I was the one who had the prerogative of mercy (or so I thought). With my flight back to Lagos, I was the one in need of mercy. It was time to plea-bargain.

I told the Lord: “I thought you’ve forgiven me concerning Bolaji.” I pointed out that I had not waited until I got back to Lagos to make restitution for my heartlessness. I phoned Bolaji from New York and gave her the money.

“Please, Lord Jesus,” I prayed. “Only Your love can get me on this plane. Please get me on this plane for Your name’s sake.”

Just then a gentleman came and tapped me on the shoulder. He was wearing a Swiss Air uniform. “What seems to be the problem?” he asked. I gave him chapter and verse of everything, including the computer malfunction. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Come with me. But you are going to have to bring your luggage.”

I promptly put my luggage back on the trolley and followed this good Samaritan. This instrument of God’s salvation took me to the Swiss Air boarding gate, got me a boarding pass and put my luggage on the plane.

“Where are you from?” he asked me. I told him I was from Nigeria. He smiled and pointed out that he was from Kenya. I would not have guessed it because he was white. Then he said to me:

“The only thing I don’t like about Nigerians is that you always beat us in football.”

He then shook hands with me and went away.

Getting older and living a long life is a privilege, but that doesn't mean aging is a walk in the park. When Redditor u/Fainne-Wu asked Reddit community members to share the hardest parts about aging, the responses were extremely insightful. Here are some of the hardest truths about aging that you might have never thought about or realized:

1. "I miss living with my parents. I miss seeing my mom every day. I live across the world from her now, and although we call each other every day, it's just not the same."

—u/vicklelikespickles

2. "For me, it's losing that feeling of innocence you had in your youth, like seeing your crush in class and imagining a relationship in your head. Swimming, eating junk food, and watching movies with good friends — no alcohol or drugs, just a family-sized bag of chips and a Dr. Pepper. It's hard to put into words, but I miss that feeling. When you get older, you lose the excitement of so many firsts: your first kiss, your first time sneaking out, your first time walking around a mall without parental guidance, first this, and first that. Life just felt so exhilarating. The feelings begin to fade out as you get older, and it's hard. Those times in the past were so happy."

—u/catherinecrunch
3. "I can't drink like I used to. Thinking about how I used to drink at 18 gives me the shivers. As you get older, you also make a lot more noise, even when you're just moving about as normal."

—u/S1m0n321
4. "Seeing my parents get older."

—u/[deleted]
5. "I could sound like a broken record that's been heard by all generations, but the truth is, as you get older, the healing process gets slower, and you end up in pain for longer periods of time. You'll hit a threshold where trying to work out the pain only makes it worse."

—u/EnyaGotGame

6. "Accepting it."

—u/sneakyBener

7. "The complete inability to sleep in. The older you get, the earlier your body wakes you up. You don't necessarily need to be up for anything on Saturday or Sunday morning, but your body has decided to go to work on your off days. When you're a teenager or in college, sleeping 12-14 hours is considered completely normal and acceptable when there's nothing to do. I would pay $100 a night if I could get 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep and actually feel well-rested when I wake."

—u/[deleted]
8. "It becomes more difficult to make new friends, even as your closest ones move away, die, or just drift apart over time."

—u/[deleted]
9. "Reflecting on the past and wishing you could change certain aspects of your life. Sometimes, it's asking yourself, What if I had done one random thing differently? But then you understand that this is your life now, and there is no going back and no do-overs. The tough reality is that it's hard; you have goals and hopes you never quite achieved, and you constantly ask yourself why you didn't die sooner."

—u/BullyBeater
10. "I regret not enjoying my childhood! I took a lot for granted as a kid. Man, that saying, 'Youth is wasted on the young,' couldn't be more true."

—u/vicklelikespickles

11. "It is increasingly more difficult, expensive, and complicated to do something about a career rut and/or the need to break out and retrain for something else. That, and discovering real talents and passions for things that you realistically have no time or possibility to pursue because you wasted your younger years working jobs you hated to chase someone else's dream."

—u/[deleted]
12. "Feeling your body get worse while your mind doesn't seem to age."

—u/Sydgyan

13. "I heard someone talking about 'not knowing when the good ole days were,' and it's true. You don't know those days are over until they're behind you, and sometimes, if you're lucky, you can have multiple times in your life that are like that. I hope that rings true for the rest of you."

—u/daydrinkingwithbob
14. "Getting both more responsibility and freedom. Like, you could do anything, but that could also fuck you up — and there's no one to stop you from doing that."

—u/Faris_rulez
15. "Time is perceived faster for some reason. Everything speeds up, and you're still trying to catch up. In some ways, it's good, like making the work day go by quicker. In others, it's bad, like having less time for friends and the hobbies you used to be able to devote many more hours to."

—u/[deleted]
16. "With each passing day, my chance to see the world passes. I don't have the money to travel as much as I want, and I know I will die missing out on so much. It's a sad reality for everyone, but it's still hard to handle."

—u/Nathann4288

17. Last but not least: "Seeing people you love make the same mistakes as you did."

—u/vdall

Buzzfeed

A recent report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed that 69.2% of children in Kano State are classified as multi-dimensionally poor.

The findings were presented by Fatima Musa, a Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF’s Kano Field Office, during a media dialogue held in Zaria on Friday.

This alarming figure underscores the severity of child poverty in the region, with the majority of children in Kano deprived in multiple aspects of well-being, including education, healthcare, nutrition, and shelter.

The media dialogue, aimed at advocating for children’s welfare, brought together news and programme managers from Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa states to discuss pressing issues affecting children’s rights.

Musa highlighted that, in addition to multi-dimensional poverty, 59.5% of children aged 0 to 17 in Kano also suffer from monetary poverty, making it clear that a significant portion of the child population faces substantial challenges on multiple fronts.

“The child Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) reveals stark disparities across Nigeria’s geopolitical zones,” Musa said, adding that poverty levels are significantly higher in the North-East and North-West regions, where 90% of children are considered poor. In contrast, the South-East and South-West regions report relatively lower, though still concerning, child poverty rates of 74% and 65.1%, respectively.

Further illustrating the national scope of the crisis, Musa pointed out that the incidence of child MPI exceeds 50% in all Nigerian states and surpasses 95% in states such as Bayelsa, Gombe, Sokoto, and Kebbi. These figures reflect not only income deprivation but also limited access to essential services such as education, healthcare, clean water, and safe housing.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) mandates that children, defined as individuals under 18, should be afforded special protection and care by the state, family, and community. However, as Musa noted, current levels of child poverty in Nigeria highlight the urgent need for greater investment in child-focused policies and programmes.

UNICEF has called for increased budgetary allocations at all levels of government to tackle the growing child poverty crisis. Musa emphasised that targeted interventions, such as improved access to quality education, healthcare, and social safety nets, are essential to addressing the root causes of child poverty.

Commending the governments of Katsina and Kano states for their willingness to pilot Universal Child Benefits, Musa described the initiative as a timely measure to reduce child poverty and support vulnerable families.

Meanwhile, Samuel Kaalu, UNICEF’s Communication Specialist for the Kano Field Office, urged the media to prioritise coverage of issues affecting women and children. He specifically called attention to the prevalence of violence against children, which often goes unreported or ignored, and stressed the importance of public awareness campaigns to promote child enrolment in schools and protect children’s rights.

Nairametrics

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has extended the suspension ofprocessing fees on cash deposits for six months.

The development comes six days before the suspension date initially fixed, expires.

On May 1, banks resumed the collection of processing fees on cash deposits.

Six days later, CBN suspended charges on the deposits until September 30.

However, in a circular directed to all banks, other financial institutions and non-financial institutions, dated September 24, 2024, and signed by Adetona Adedeji, CBN’s director of banking supervision, the apex bank extended the date to March 31, 2025.

“Further to our letter dated May 6, 2024, referenced BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/016/023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hereby extends the suspension of processing charges on cash deposits above N500,000 for individuals and N3,000,000 for corporates,” the apex bank said.

“The previous suspension, set to expire on September 30, 2024, has now been extended until March 31, 2025.

“This suspension pertains to the 2% and 3% fees outlined in the ‘Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial Institutions and Non-Bank Financial Institutions, issued on December 20, 2019.”

CBN asked all financial institutions to continue accepting cash deposits from the public without any charges during the period.

The Cable

Israeli airstrikes rock Beirut, Hezbollah command centre hit

A wave of air raids hit Beirut's southern suburbs early on Saturday as Israel stepped up attacks on Hezbollah, after a massive strike on the Iran-backed movement's command centre that apparently targeted leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Reuters witnesses heard more than 20 airstrikes before dawn on Saturday. Abandoning their homes in the southern suburbs, thousands of Lebanese congregated in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.

"They want to destroy Dahiye, they want to destroy all of us," said Sari, a man in his 30s who gave only his first name, referring to the suburb he had fled after an Israeli evacuation order. Nearby, the newly displaced in Beirut's Martyrs Square rolled mats onto the ground to try to sleep.

An unprecedented five hours of continuous strikes early on Saturday followed Friday's attack, by far the most powerful by Israel on Beirut during nearly a year of war with Hezbollah. It marked a sharp escalation of a conflict that has involved daily missile and rocket fire between the two sides.

The latest escalation has sharply increased fears the conflict could spiral out of control, potentially drawing in Iran, Hezbollah's principal backer, as well as the United States.

There was no immediate confirmation of Nasrallah's fate after Friday's heavy strikes, but a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was not reachable. The Lebanese armed group has not made a statement.

Israel has not said whether it tried to hit Nasrallah, but a senior Israeli official said top Hezbollah commanders were targeted.

"I think it's too early to say... Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed," the Israeli official told reporters when asked if the strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.

Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive. Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was checking his status.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah's missile unit, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy Hossein Ahmed Ismail.

DEATH TOLL RISES

Hours before the latest barrage, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that his country had a right to continue the campaign.

"As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely," he said.

Several delegations walked out as Netanyahu approached the lectern. He later cut short his New York trip to return to Israel.

Lebanese health authorities confirmed six dead and 91 wounded in the initial attack on Friday - the fourth on Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs in a week and the heaviest since a 2006 war.

The toll appeared likely to rise much higher. There was no word on casualties from the later strikes. More than 700 people were killed in strikes over the past week, authorities said.

Hezbollah's al-Manar television reported seven buildings were destroyed. Security sources in Lebanon said the target was an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based.

Hours later, the Israeli military told residents in parts of Beirut's southern suburbs to evacuate as it targeted missile launchers and weapons storage sites it said were under civilian housing.

Hezbollah denied any weapons or arms depots were located in buildings that were hit in the Beirut suburbs, the Lebanese armed group's media office said in a statement.

Alaa al-Din Saeed, a resident of a neighbourhood Israel identified as a target, told Reuters he was fleeing with his wife and three children.

"We found out on the television. There was a huge commotion in the neighbourhood," he said. The family grabbed clothes, identification papers and some cash but were stuck in traffic with others trying to flee.

"We're going to the mountains. We'll see how to spend the night - and tomorrow we'll see what we can do."

Around 100,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced this week, increasing the number uprooted in the country to well over 200,000.

Israel's government has said that returning some 70,000 Israeli evacuees to their homes is a war aim.

FEAR THE FIGHTING WILL SPREAD

Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and missiles against targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. The group said it fired rockets on Friday at the northern Israeli city of Safed, where a woman was treated for minor injuries.

Israel's air defence systems have ensured the damage has so far been minimal.

Iran, which said Friday's attack crossed "red lines", accused Israel of using U.S.-made "bunker-busting" bombs.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was not informed of that strike beforehand. President Joe Biden was being kept abreast of developments.

At the U.N., where the annual General Assembly met this week, the intensification prompted expressions of concern including by France, which with the U.S. has proposed a 21-day ceasefire.

"This must be brought to an end immediately," French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told a Security Council meeting.

At a New York press conference, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: "We believe the way forward is through diplomacy, not conflict... We will continue to work intentionally with all parties to urge them to choose that course."

Hezbollah opened the latest bout in a decades-long conflict with a missile barrage against Israel immediately following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza last year.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's Zelenskiy presents 'victory plan' to Trump at New York meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presented his war "victory plan" to Donald Trump during a closed-door meeting on Friday, after the Republican presidential candidate said he would work with both Ukraine and Russia to end their conflict.

The meeting between the two men at Trump Tower in Manhattan was their first in-person encounter since 2019. Zelenskiy said he was talking with both Trump and his Democratic rival in the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, because Ukraine needed strong U.S. support in its continuing war with Russia.

Trump praised Zelenskiy, but said he also had a solid relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We have a very good relationship (with Zelenskiy), and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin," Trump told reporters. "And I think if we win, I think we're going to get it resolved very quickly," he added.

Zelenskiy has used his U.S. visit to promote his "victory plan," which a U.S. official described as a repackaged request for more weapons and a lifting of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles. The plan presupposes the ultimate defeat of Russia in the war, the official said. Some officials see the aim as unrealistic.

When asked on Thursday by a reporter if Ukraine should hand over some of the Ukrainian land Russia has captured to end the war - a non-starter for Kyiv - Trump replied: "We'll see what happens."

At one point during a pre-meeting press conference on Friday, when Zelenskiy suggested he had a better relationship with Trump than Putin did, Trump responded: "Yeah, but you know it takes two to tango."

Still, Trump said on Friday he was pleased to meet with Zelenskiy, a marked change in tone from some of his previous comments on the campaign trail. After the meeting, Zelenskiy called his talks with Trump "very productive."

On Monday, Trump said Zelenskiy wanted Harris to win the election. He has also called Zelenskiy "the greatest salesman of all time" because his country has received billions of dollars in military aid from the United States and Europe.

"It's an honor to have the president with us, and he's been through a lot," Trump said on Friday. "He's been through a tremendous amount, like probably nobody else, almost nobody else in history, if you really get right down to it, and we're going to have a discussion and see what we could come up with."

TRUMP, HARRIS DIFFER ON UKRAINE

Trump on Friday said that if he won the Nov. 5 election he would immediately begin working toward a resolution of the Ukraine conflict, even though he would formally take office only in late January 2025.

Zelenskiy, who was in the United States for the U.N. General Assembly, met on Thursday with Democratic President JoeBiden and Harris.

Over the weekend, Zelenskiy traveled to a munitions factory in Pennsylvania with that state's Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, a Harris ally. The visit upset Trump's campaign and enraged some congressional Republicans who viewed the trip as a campaign stop, particularly as Pennsylvania is an important battleground state expected to decide the U.S. election.

As late as Thursday, people close to Trump and his campaign had said a meeting appeared extremely unlikely, though the former president apparently changed his mind during Zelenskiy's stay in the country.

Trump and Harris' differences on Ukraine echo splits in their respective Democratic and Republican parties, and their view of the U.S. role in the world.

Along with Trump, some Republicans in Congress have questioned the value of U.S. funding and additional weapons for Ukraine's two-year battle against Russia's invasion, calling it futile, while Democrats led by Biden have pushed to punish Russia and bolster Ukraine, framing Ukraine's victory as a vital national security interest.

The war in Ukraine and foreign policy in general lag behind domestic issues like the economy, healthcare and immigration in terms of what most voters think are important.

But a strong majority, 64%, of registered voters say they support Ukraine's use of U.S.-supplied arms to strike within Russia, according to an August Reuters/Ipsos poll, including 78% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian army plagued by desertion and draft-dodging – The Economist

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky's so-called ‘victory plan’ is being undermined by the reality that his nation does not have enough manpower or resources to prevail over Russia, The Economist reported on Thursday.

Zelensky is currently visiting the US to promote his proposal, which reportedly boils down to the West increasing its backing in terms of cash and weapons so Kiev can continue fighting.

The British magazine described the dire situation affecting the Ukrainian economy and dwindling military manpower. Unlike Moscow, which is fielding volunteers, Kiev relies on forced conscription, it noted.

”Officers complain that many of those drafted into service are ill-suited to fighting: too old, too ill, too drunk. There is no clear path out of the army once in it, which makes being mobilized seem like a one-way ticket to the morgue,” The Economist said.

”Some 5-10% of soldiers on active duty are absent without leave,” it added, noting that “fewer than 30% of Ukrainians consider draft-dodging shameful.”

There is a generational gap, with younger men eligible for military service being far less inclined to support Zelensky’s uncompromising stance, compared to those too old to be recruited, the report added.

In a separate editorial article on Thursday, the magazine accused Zelensky of “defying reality” with his military strategy, warning that he would “drive away Ukraine’s backers and further divide Ukrainian society” if he keeps pursuing it.

Ukraine needs to redefine victory over Russia as “becoming a prosperous, Western-leaning democracy,” after making concessions for the sake of peace. In return for “embracing this grim truth, Western leaders need to make his overriding war aim credible by ensuring that Ukraine has the military capacity and security guarantees it needs,” it suggested.

Moscow has stated that NATO’s intention to draw Ukraine into its ranks was one of the key triggers for the hostilities. Its vision for a stable peace includes a cap on Ukraine’s military strength and its non-alignment. Kiev agreed to those terms during peace talks in the early phase of the conflict, but then reportedly made a U-turn at the West’s suggestion.

Reuters/RT