STORY: An explosion rocked Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday (March 6), with smoke billowing over the Lebanese capital.

Israel pounded Beirut on Friday after ordering an unprecedented evacuation of the entire southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a major expansion of the war against Iran it began a week ago alongside the United States.

The Israeli military said it carried out 26 waves of strikes overnight against Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage.

Israel has intervened in Lebanon repeatedly over decades, most recently in a campaign that weakened Hezbollah in 2024. But the ferocity of Friday's strikes had little precedent even in the long history of war in the Lebanese capital.

Israel ordered residents to evacuate the entire southern section of Beirut, home to hundreds of thousands of people. During previous campaigns it had ordered only smaller evacuations of specific areas

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Explosion rocks Beirut's southern suburbs and smoke billows following Israeli strike

VIDEO SHOWS: SMOKE BILLOWING FOLLOWING AN ISRAELI STRIKE ON BEIRUT'S SOUTHERN SUBURBS / MOMENT OF AN ISRAELI STRIKE ON BEIRUT'S SOUTHERN SUBURBS, AS SEEN AND HEARD FROM BAABDA

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SHOWS: BEIRUT SOUTHERN SUBURBS, LEBANON (MARCH 6, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF SMOKE BILLOWING AROUND BUILDINGS FOLLOWING AN ISRAELI STRIKE / SOME PEOPLE GATHERING NEARBY, WITH VEHICLES AND MOTORCYCLES DRIVING

BAABDA, LEBANON (MARCH 6, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

2. VARIOUS OF SMOKE BILLOWING FOLLOWING ISRAELI STRIKE, AS SEEN FROM BAABDA / AUDIO OF EXPLOSION