RT Correspondent Steve Sweeney and Cameraman Wounded in Israeli Airstrike in Southern Lebanon | WATCH
Dear Steve: Maybe next time don’t cheer for the people trying to wipe Israel off the map while hiding behind a press vest.
Russia Today (RT) journalist Steve Sweeney and his cameraman Ali Rida were both injured Thursday when an Israeli missile struck near their vehicle in southern Lebanon.
The strike hit less than 10 metres from their marked press car close to the Al-Qasmiya Bridge.
Sweeney suffered shrapnel wounds to his arm and had the fragments removed in hospital; both men are conscious and in stable condition, according to the network.
Sweeney had spent recent weeks filing reports from Lebanon that praised Iran and Hezbollah.
RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan confirmed the incident and said the team is receiving medical treatment. The network described the strike as deliberate. No immediate comment from Israeli authorities.
Yossi Kaufman of the "Military and Security Forum" has dismissed claims by the Russian state-controlled outlet RT (Russia Today) regarding an alleged targeted strike against its reporting team in South Lebanon.
Responding to reports that RT correspondent Ali Rida was the target of an Israeli assassination attempt, Kaufman issued a sharp rebuttal. "The RT channel (a supporter of terrorism) claims that the IDF tried to liquidate Ali Rida, a 'correspondent' (and anti-Semitic propagandist) for the channel," Kaufman wrote.
But the reality of the incident is tied to the location of the broadcast rather than the journalists themselves. "In practice, Rida was broadcasting from above a fortified Hezbollah structure that had been attacked in the past," Kaufman explained. "The munition hit the building, not the RT crew."
He concluded with a stark warning regarding the precision of Israeli operations: "Habibi, our targeted strikes don't miss like that. If they wanted to liquidate you, you wouldn't have survived to tell the story."
The exchange comes amid heavy fighting in the region. Earlier today, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit reported that forces from the 36th Division, in coordination with the Air Force, eliminated more than 20 terrorists in South Lebanon over the past 24 hours.
During overnight ground operations, troops engaged in face-to-face combat, successfully neutralizing several enemy cells. Additionally, Israeli forces located and seized a vast array of weaponry, including RPG launchers, anti-tank rockets, ammunition and military gear, and shotguns and tactical equipment.