Lebanon records deadliest day in nearly a year of conflict

Lebanon: More than 180 Lebanese were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday, the deadliest and most intense attack in nearly a year, as the Israeli military warned residents of southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of stepping up an air campaign against Hezbollah.

Thousands of Lebanese fled south, and the main highway leading out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars headed to Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. More than 400 others were wounded in the attacks. The Israeli military announced it had struck nearly 300 targets on Monday, and said it was striking Hezbollah weapons sites. Some of the attacks hit residential areas of cities in the south and eastern Bekaa Valley. One attack hit a wooded area in central Lebanon up to Byblos, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut.

The military said it was expanding air strikes to include areas of the Bekaa Valley along Lebanon’s eastern border. Hezbollah has long had a presence in the Bekaa Valley, which lies on the Lebanese-Syrian border, where the group was founded in 1982 with help from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.