US braces for escalation as Hezbollah weighs Israel retaliation

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WASHINGTON — Israel’s suspected assassination of a top Hamas figure in Lebanon, coupled with deadly explosions in Iran a day later, could undercut US efforts to head off a broader regional war. 

On Tuesday, an apparent drone strike in a densely populated neighborhood in southern Beirut killed Hamas' deputy political head Saleh al-Arouri as well as six other members of the Palestinian militant group. Hamas and its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah were quick to blame Israel, which did not deny responsibility. Such admissions by Israel of targeting killings are rare. 

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller declined to say whether the US was supportive of Arouri's assassination, other than describing the senior Hamas official as a “brutal terrorist with civilian blood on his hands.”