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, Lebanese and Arab TV networks and security sources 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.
The Israeli army radio confirmed that Afif was the target of the strike.
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.
A Lebanese security source confirmed to AFP that Afif was present in the Baath Party office, adding his fate was "unclear."
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.