Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that he was determined to disarm Hezbollah, a step it has come under heavy US pressure to take, despite the group's protests that doing so would serve Israeli goals.

Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes late on Thursday targeting Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, the Israeli army and Lebanese security sources said. The strikes hit remote areas near the eastern town of Brital in the Bekaa Valley and the outskirts of Janta near the Syrian border.