Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif was killed in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese security sources said on Sunday. The Associated Press cited an anonymous Hezbollah official as confirming Afif`s death, in a strike on a building in the Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood that housed the Lebanese branch of the Syrian Baath party.

Afif is the latest in a long line of Hezbollah officials killed since late September, when Israel began its heavy bombardment of what it says are Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. Before that, Israel and Hezbollah were engaged in prolonged cross-border exchanges over the Gaza war.

Afif was a close associate of Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time Hezbollah chief who was killed in an Israeli strike in September. For years, Afif was responsible for the Iran-backed militia`s media relations, providing information to local and foreign journalists, often anonymously.

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

After Nasrallah`s killing, Afif held several press conferences in Beirut`s southern suburbs, including one last month that had to be cut short due to the threat of an Israeli strike nearby.

The Israeli army earlier issued evacuation warnings for sites in the Hadath, Burj al-Barajneh, Chiyah and Haret Hreik areas, saying they were near "Hezbollah sites and assets." This was followed by several strikes on southern Beirut.

Lebanon`s National News Agency reported a heavy strike near a hospital in Hadath. Another hit a residential building in Haret Hreik and a third destroyed a 12-storey residential building near a church in Chiyah.

Lebanon`s army said an Israeli attack had also killed two soldiers and wounded three others in southern Lebanon. "The Israeli enemy directly targeted an army center" in Mari in south Lebanon`s Hasbaya area, the Lebanese army said in a statement.

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