WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States did not have advanced warning of an Israeli strike in Beirut and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart as the operation was ongoing, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday.
“The United States was not involved in this operation and we had no advanced warning,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
Singh declined to say what Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Austin about the operation and whether it indeed targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The Pentagon also declined to speculate on whether the Hezbollah leader was still alive.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; editing by Jonathan Oatis)