United States White House not warned about strike that killed Nasrallah

The White House said it was not warned in advance of the airstrike that killed Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a Beirut suburb and assumed it had caused civilian casualties, while reaffirming its "ironclad" support to Israel.

- Edward Helmore New York

John Kirby, the national security spokesperson, said the US had not been informed of the airstrike and that the president, Joe Biden, only found out about it once Israeli planes were already in the air.

Speaking to CNN yesterday, Kirby also said there was "no question" that civilians had been killed in the attack.

He said: "We certainly assume there have been civilian casualties. I don't think we can quantify it right now but we are in touch with our Israeli counterparts."

Iran has said the US is "complicit" in Israel's action and promised retaliation for Friday's massive airstrike in Beirut, raising fears that the conflict in the Middle East could spin out of control.

Kirby said: "We've been concerned from the beginning that this could widen to become a regional war. We'll watched the rhetoric coming out of Iran and we'll watch what they do. We have capability to defend our troops and our facilities as well as Israel itself if it comes to that."