Hezbollah spokesman killed in rare Israeli strike on central Beirut

Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif was killed Sunday in a rare Israeli airstrike targeting the center of the capital Beirut -- outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds of Dahieh, the south and the Bekaa, a Hezbollah official said.

The strike -- in the Ras al-Nabaa area near Sodeco Square -- targeted a building containing the headquarters of the Lebanese branch of the Baath Party that rules Syria. A Baath member who survived the strike said the building also contained an apartment housing displaced Lebanese.

Ali Hijazi, secretary-general of the Lebanese branch, "confirmed the death of Hezbollah media official" Afif, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The Israeli army radio confirmed that Afif was the target of the strike.

Afif had remained especially visible after the eruption of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah in September and the killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was also targeted by an Israeli airstrike. Last month, Afif had hastily wrapped up a press conference in Beirut ahead of Israeli strikes.

The Health Ministry said the strike killed at least one person and wounded three others in a preliminary toll, adding that work was ongoing to remove rubble from the site of the strike.

Al-Mayadeen TV meanwhile said that five people were killed and seven others wounded in the strike. A Lebanese security source told Al-Jazeera that a group from Hezbollah's media unit was present in the targeted building.

It was the first strike in the central part of Beirut in weeks. Four previous strikes had targeted Palestinian officials in the Cola area, Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers in Bashoura and two buildings in Nweiri and Basta where Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa was reportedly targeted.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw four lifeless bodies and four wounded people.

People could be seen fleeing the neighborhood after the strike, which came without warning. NNA, however, said "one of the residents of a neighboring building had received a warning call urging evacuation but it was not taken seriously."

There was no immediate comment on the strike from the Israeli military.

“I was asleep and awoke from the sound of the strike, and people screaming, and cars and gunfire," said Suheil Halabi, a witness. "I was startled, honestly. This is the first time I experience it so close.”

Afif was part of the inner circle of Nasrallah and for years had been responsible for Hezbollah's media relations, providing information to local and foreign journalists, often under the cover of anonymity.

Afif joined Hezbollah at a young age and first came to prominence as information director for Hezbollah's television channel Al-Manar when the group and Israel went to war in 2006.

After Nasrallah's assassination, Afif had held several press conferences in Beirut's southern suburbs, including one last month in which he announced Hezbollah had launched a drone targeting the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

That press conference was cut short when the Israeli army warned it would strike a building nearby.

"Bombardments have not scared us, so how would threats?" Afif said defiantly as journalists hurriedly collected their microphones from the table.

Hezbollah officials killed in previous Israeli strikes include not only Nasrallah but also Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, tipped as the former chief's successor.