Iran blames US for Israeli attack on Beirut

The Lebanese army has set up a security cordon around the US embassy in northern Beirut, Reuters said citing a security source.

Earlier, the UK Foreign Office urged Britons to leave Lebanon with the "next available flight".

Israel's air strike on Beirut "changes the rules of the game," Iran's embassy in Beirut posted on X.

"Once again, the Israeli regime is committing a bloody massacre, targeting densely populated residential neighborhoods", the embassy said.

"There is no doubt that this reprehensible crime and reckless behavior represent a serious escalation that changes the rules of the game and brings upon its perpetrator appropriate punishment and discipline."

No senior leader from Hezbollah was killed Israel's air strike on Beirut, IRGC-affiliated Tasnim said citing informed sources in Lebanon.

"The operation was a failure," Tasnim quoted its sources as saying.

Reuters has also said that senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine is alive, citing a Hezbollah source.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said that Washington received no advance warning from Israel on its attack on Beirut.

The US defence secretary Lloyd Austin was on the phone with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant when the air strike happened, Singh said.

The three defendants remain inside Iran and were acting on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite transnational military organization dedicated to confronting Israel and the United States.

"The operation targeted the email accounts of current and former American public officials, journalists and most recently, individuals associated with US political campaigns," Garland said, adding the justice department is dedicated to "countering the threat that Iran poses to our democracy."

"The defendants' own words make clear that they were attempting to undermine former President Trump's campaign in advance of the 2024 US presidential election."

Named as Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi, the men have little chance of being brought before a US court.

Jalili was among seven people targeted in new sanctions on Friday in a separate announcement by the US treasury department for similar allegations of interfering in the upcoming polls.

"Iranian state-sponsored actors undertook a variety of malicious cyber activities, such as hack-and-leak operations and spear-phishing, in an attempt to undermine confidence in the United States’ election" the treasury said.