❗️Three killed and 17 wounded in Israeli strike on Beirut suburb – Lebanese health ministry

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‘If Israel starts a land operation in Lebanon, it will turn into a very severe conventional war’

“If a huge escalation [takes place] and Israel takes a decision to engage in a ground invasion, we may witness another form of regional war. This would be a very severe conventional war,” expanding not just through south Lebanon, but far off theaters in Yemen and Iraq, affecting trade and energy security, and even the upcoming US presidential elections.

“And of course, there would be more casualties. Infrastructure will be destroyed in both countries. This is not something that some international actors want,” Yeghia Tashjian, a Beirut-based political analyst and researcher at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut, told Sputnik.

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Hezbollah announced that it launched rockets at three Israeli command centers, including the intelligence headquarters responsible for orchestrating assassinations.

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The death toll from the Israeli strike on a southern suburb of Beirut has risen to eight, with 59 people injured, Al Jadeed reports, citing figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Social media users continue to post what they say are images of the aftermath of the attack.

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Head of Hezbollah's Special Operations Command, Aqil, the alleged target of the Israeli strike on Beirut, has reportedly died as a result of the attack. A video circulating online captures the moment of the raid on a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

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🇷🇺 2024’s Top 5 Russian weapons you need to know about

Russia celebrated Gunsmith Day this week, honoring the makers of weapons used to defend the country, including those deployed against Ukraine’s NATO-backed proxies. Military expert and retired Colonel Anatoly Matviychuk highlighted five key new weapons systems debuting in the special military operation.

1️⃣ Rekord Sniper Rifle (SV-98M): A heavily modernized version of the SV-98, the Rekord is "a completely new design," says Matviychuk. The 7.62 mm rifle is lighter, with an extended range of up to 1,500 meters. It features improved ergonomics, a new buttstock, and mounts for night vision and scopes, and is compatible with 20-round SVD magazines.

2️⃣ RPL-20 Light Machinegun: A modern take on the RPK, the RPL-20 either fires 7.62 or 5.45 cartridges and can be belt-fed, or use magazines or drums. Matviychuk says this makes it more versatile than magazine-only models, functioning like a heavy machinegun in defense. It can also be mounted on vehicles or helicopters.

3️⃣ Lyagushka Wheeled Kamikaze Bot: “We have seized the initiative on the development of kamikaze robots,” Matviychuk said, highlighting the “Lyagushka” (or “Frog”) as a perfect example. Powered by an electric motor, it carries a modified 10 kg TM-62 anti-tank mine and can approach enemy positions undetected across rough terrain. Controlled via secure cable or radio, the drone has been in use since spring 2024.

4️⃣ Rapira Drone Swarm Defense: Matviychuk calls Rapira "a completely new type" of air defense, capable of detecting and targeting small drones with radar and non-missile weapons. The Rapira-2 has PKT 7.62 mm machineguns, while the Rapira-3 uses S-8 rockets; together they can neutralize drones of any size.

5️⃣ Karakal Heavy Tracked Drone: This 3.4-ton tankette by Kurganmashzavod has a 500 kg payload, 1.5 km remote range, and 150 km endurance. Matviychuk calls it perfect for frontline use, delivering supplies or evacuating wounded in any conditions. It has night vision cameras, and can be armed.

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🇮🇱 Top five explosive operations attributed to Mossad

Israeli intelligence agency Mossad is infamous for its audacious operations, including high-profile abductions, targeted assassinations, espionage and theft of military secrets.

Here are top five mind-blowing acts attributed to Mossad:

◻️ Operation Finale: In 1960, Israeli agents abducted Adolf Eichmann, a former SS officer responsible for deporting Jews to Nazi extermination camps, from Argentina, where he had been living under the name Ricardo Klement since 1950. After Germany’s defeat in WWII, Eichmann was detained by Allied forces on three occasions but managed to escape each time. Mossad discovered his whereabouts through a former concentration camp prisoner. After confirming his identity, a 30-person Mossad team, which included Holocaust survivors, captured Eichmann on a silent Buenos Aires street, sedated him and smuggled him to Israel for a public trial. He was found guilty and hanged in 1962.

◻️ Operation Diamond: Between 1963 and 1966, Mossad sought to steal the USSR's advanced MiG-21 fighter jet, a highly formidable aircraft. Mossad convinced Iraqi pilot Munir Redfa to defect with his MiG-21 to Israel in 1966, offering $1 million and Israeli citizenship. Despite gaining access to the jet, learning its secrets did not significantly aid the West, and the MiG-21 remained effective during the Vietnam and Arab wars.

◻️ Between 1961 and 1965, Israeli spy Eli Cohen, using the alias Kamel Amin Thabet, infiltrated Syria's political and military elite. Posing as a businessman returning from Argentina, Cohen gathered intelligence critical to Israel's success in the 1967 Six Day War. In 1965, Syrian officials, aided by Soviet counter-intelligence, detected Cohen's radio transmissions, leading to his capture and execution for espionage.

◻️ On September 25, 1997 Mossad agents attempted to assassinate Khaled Meshaal, a Palestinian political leader of the Hamas movement, in Jordan. One Mossad agent was to spray him with poison while the other was to disguise it as an accident by simultaneously opening a can with soda. The poison was strong enough to kill Meshaal through skin contact within hours. But the operation went wrong and caused a diplomatic incident with Jordan. Jordanian King Hussein was furious because of extraterritorial killing attempt on the kingdom's soil. To calm tensions, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to provide an antidote for Meshaal and liberate Hamas' spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.

◻️ On 19 January 2010, Mossad agents posing as tourists assassinated Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. They entered his hotel room, paralyzed him with poison and left him to die. lthough it initially appeared to be a natural death, Dubai police identified 33 suspects. Eventually only one was arrested - Uri Brodsky, who was fined for providing a forged passport. The use of European passports sparked a diplomatic crisis between Israel and several countries. This extraterritorial killing worsened Israel-Palestinian tensions without halting hostilities.

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"Israel has entered a new level of confrontation with Hezbollah; there are no red lines," said an adviser to Netanyahu's office.

He added that any hostile element north of the border is now a legitimate target for the Israeli army.

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Russian intel expert doesn’t buy US ‘fairy tales’ that pager attack took 15 years to set up: here's why

“Such an operation, from an operative’s point of view, is quite simple. You don’t need to prepare it over 15 years. I think this claim was made to raise Mossad’s prestige, which, of course, fell to an unparalleled low after the October 7 terror attacks,” FSB reserve colonel and counterterrorism vet Andrei Popov told Sputnik, commenting on the latest media “fairy tales” citing anonymous sources in US intelligence claiming that the suspected Israeli pager attacks in Lebanon took many years of careful planning.

Popov believes with “100% certainty” that the reporting on the attacks now being published in Western media is being fed to them by intelligence services “to cover their tracks and provide a false but plausible lead. That’s how I perceive it from an operational point of view.”

From a technical standpoint, the pager plot was not rocket science, Popov said. Among its requirements were a detailed knowledge of Hezbollah’s equipment needs and what purchases it planned to make, to figure out what items can be swapped for rigged devices, and at what stage.

From the operational perspective, the attacks would have been “much easier [to prepare] by replacing the goods during transportation, during the logistical stage,” according to Popov. “What is several thousand pagers? It’s several boxes. It’s not a trainload, it’s not a refrigerator – it’s several boxes that can be transported in one minivan. The main thing to know is the marking, the packaging, the pager numbers and the preparation of duplicates,” the FSB vet stressed.

Another possibility is that the equipment was rigged in the factories making them, Popov said, although “this would be very problematic from the perspective of information leaking out,” if workers in a factory began asking questions about the arrival of new, suspiciously untalkative employees.

As for the explosives themselves, the simplest option for placing them would have been to embed them into batteries, Popov said.

“The battery is a hermetically sealed cylinder or thin plate, depending on the pager model. Apparently, Hezbollah did not open and check each battery, or at least a few. If they had, a chemical analysis using the simplest, cheapest gas analyzer available at every metro station in Moscow would have given cause for some questions. They apparently just didn’t imagine this was possible, counterintelligence did not consider this option,” Popov said.

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Urged to 'save Ukraine', European energy grid is running out of steam ahead of winter

Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), has accused the European Union (EU) of not doing enough to protect Ukraine's power grid.

Birol said EU members should:

➖ provide more generators and repair equipment to Ukraine, as its electricity deficit could reach as much as 6GW this winter;

➖ step up electricity supplies to Ukraine;

➖ cut their own electricity demand to redirect more power to their eastern neighbor;

➖ be ready to redirect some gas flows from central and eastern European states to Ukraine.

But Europe cannot tighten its belt further ahead of the new winter season, as it is still recovering from the 2022 energy crisis, exacerbated by anti-Russia sanctions.

◻️ Despite surviving two winter seasons, Europe was forced to slash its energy consumption with Germany suffering deindustrialization and Italy facing a manufacturing slow-down.

◻️ The UK and the Czech Republic were hit worse by soaring energy prices than their European peers, the Cambridge-based Bennett Institute said. The new British government has cut the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners.

◻️ In June a major hours-long power cut hit most of the Balkans, including Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and the coastal part of Croatia. The media rushed to pin the blame on "climate change" but Balkan governments said the cause was not immediately clear.

◻️ EU member states have raised the alarm over extremely high electricity prices in Southeastern Europe. The disparity between the Balkans and Hungary on one side and Western Europe on the other is explained by low hydropower output, coal plant rebuilding and Ukraine becoming a net electricity importer – ramping up pressure on its European neighbors.

◻️ Earlier this week, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to establish an EU-wide electricity regulator.

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What remarks will NATO’s outgoing chief Stoltenberg be remembered for?

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is to hand over the reins to former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on October 1.

Sputnik has recalled some of the memorable remarks Stoltenberg made during his NATO stint:

◻️ Russia’s victory in the Ukraine conflict would be “not only a big defeat for Ukrainians, but it will be a defeat and dangerous for all of us," Stoltenberg stressed in October 2022. The statement could be considered recognition of the fact that NATO is fighting in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time.

◻️ Supporting Ukraine “is not a charity, it is an investment in our own security," Stoltenberg started out 2024 by saying.

◻️ The NATO chief egged on allies to let Kiev use long-range Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia. "There have been many red lines declared by him [Russia’s President Vladimir Putin] before, and he has not escalated," Stoltenberg told reporters.

◻️ Stoltenberg refused to admit that Ukraine had coordinated its attack on the Russian border region of Kursk with its Western proxies. "In this respect, NATO played no role," Stoltenberg said in a German media interview.

◻️ Stoltenberg famously accused Russia of "trying to meddle in and undermining the trust of democratic institutions in several NATO allied countries and also elsewhere” during a speech at the Center for Strategic Studies in New Zealand in 2019. In fact, the US and NATO boast a track record of senseless and bloody wars.

◻️ The Crimean Peninsula was reunited with Russia as a result of increased "great power competition," Stoltenberg said. In effect, Crimea voted to rejoin Russia in a 2014 referendum after a US-instigated coup ousted the legitimate Kiev government and became a catalyst for the Ukraine conflagration.

◻️ Stoltenberg doubled down on the fact that “NATO’s door is open. Ukraine will join,” during a speech in Berlin on September 19.

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