American Marconi Wireless News - Lebanon says second Israeli strike on central Beirut kills two

An earlier strike killed Hezbollah's spokesman, a security source said.

Israel has been heavily bombing Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah, since all-out war erupted on September 23 but attacks on central Beirut have been rarer.

"Israeli warplanes launched a strike on the Mar Elias area," the official National News Agency said of the densely-packed district that also houses people displaced by the conflict.

The health ministry said the strike killed two people and wounded 22, raising an earlier toll of one dead and nine wounded.

AFP journalists heard the sound of explosions and then sirens amid a strong acrid smell of burning. AFP images showed a blaze at the site that firefighters were trying to extinguish.

A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity, told AFP that the strike hit an electronics store and a vehicle.

Lina, 59, whose home in Mar Elias is less than 500 metres (1,600 feet) from the strike site, said the raid hit a street she uses "every day to go to work".

"It's a residential area... Nowhere in the country is safe anymore," she said, requesting to be identified only by her first name.

The NNA said the strike "targeted a Jamaa Islamiya centre", referring to a Sunni Muslim group allied to Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

But Jamaa Islamiya lawmaker Imad Hout told AFP that "no centre or institution affiliated with the group is located in the area targeted by the strike, and no member of the group was targeted".

Earlier Sunday, a Lebanese security source said Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif was killed in a strike on central Beirut's Ras al-Nabaa district.

A total of four people, including a woman, were killed in that incident and 14 were wounded, Lebanon's health ministry said.

In the wake of Sunday's strikes, Lebanon's Education Minister Abbas Halabi said schools and higher education institutions in the Beirut area would remain closed for two days.

Israel's military on Sunday told AFP that it had struck "over 200 targets" in Lebanon since Saturday morning.

O.M.Souza--AMWN