Dressel and Ledecky win again at U.S. Olympic swimming trials. Keep an eye on Kate Douglass, too

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Caeleb Dressel locked up his second individual race in Paris, giving him another chance to shine after his stellar performance at the last Olympics.

Keep an eye on Kate Douglass, too. She could be one of the the biggest American stars at the pool.

And, of course, Katie Ledecky will be swimming a whole bunch of events.

Dressel, the winner of five gold medals at the Tokyo Games, touched first in the men's 100-meter butterfly at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials Saturday night.

Dressel followed up his triumph in the 50 freestyle with a winning time of 50.19 seconds, giving him a chance to defend another of the gold medals he captured in Tokyo.

“I think all of my swims, I executed as well as I could,” he said.

Douglass locked up her third individual event at the Olympics with a victory in the 200-meter individual medley.

She was neck and neck with Alex Walsh at the final turn, but no one could keep up with Douglass on the freestyle leg.

She finished in 2:06.79, while Walsh held on for the second Olympic spot in 2:07.86.

Douglass has lived up to her billing as one of the world’s most versatile swimmers, also claiming trials victories in the 200 breaststroke and 100 freestyle.

“I'm really happy with that,” Douglass said. “I was coming into the meet trying to win all three events, but I didn't think I'd be able to achieve that. So I'm happy I did.”

Ledecky romped to her fourth victory of the trials, winning the 800 freestyle in 8 minutes, 14.12 seconds. Paige Madden took the second spot in 8:20.71.

Ledecky plans to drop the 200 freestyle from her Olympic program, but will be competing in the 400, 800 and 1,500 free, as well as the 4x200 free relay.

Dressel didn't come close to his world record of 49.45, which he set at the last Olympics. But he led all the way and touched about a half-body length ahead of 17-year-old Thomas Heilman, who earned the second spot for Paris in 50.80.

Dressel will also swim up to three relays at the Summer Games, which would put him close to the six-event program he had in Tokyo. The only event he didn't win three years ago was the mixed relay.

“It's tough making it through the trials,” Dressel said. “This truly is the hardest part.”

The only individual gold that Dressel won't get to defend in Paris is the 100 freestyle. He missed out with a third-place showing in his first event of these trials.

After walking away from swimming in the midst of the 2022 world championships, leading to a long layoff that he needed to regain his love of the sport, Dressel will head to these Olympics with a bit less hype than three years ago, when he was being heralded as the next Michael Phelps.

Dressel is fully aware that others around the world have posted faster times in his events this year. He readily admits that he may never swim another personal best in his career. But he's still a guy who knows how to perform when the spotlight is the brightest, as it will be in Paris.

“I know I'm the defending champ,” Dressel said “There's no way around that. But I think I'm chasing some of those guys as well.”

Perhaps his greatest thrill of these trials was having his 4-month-old son, August Wilder, in the stands at Lucas Oil Stadium with his wife, Meghan.

“My son got to watch me make an Olympic team,” Dressel said, breaking into a big smile. “He will not not remember it. But I'll tell him, trust me. I've got pictures to prove it."

Heilman will also compete in the 200 butterfly, winning that event at the trials to become the youngest male to make the U.S. swim team since 15-year-old Michael Phelps in 2000.

“The butterfly is in good hands with this guy,” Dressel said, motioning toward Heilman. “He's scary, scary.”

Walsh will get to swim at the Olympics with her sister Gretchen, finally making the team on the next-to-last night of the trials.

“It means the world,” said Alex Walsh, who competed without her sister in Tokyo. “I didn't know if I was going to make it to Paris after she made it. This is a dream we’ve been dreaming for so long.”

Simone Manuel, the first Black female swimmer to win an individual gold medal, will have one more chance on the final night of the meet to make the team in an individual event.

Already assured of her third Olympics as a member the 4x100 free relay, Manuel advanced to the 50 freestyle final on Sunday with the fourth-fastest time in Saturday night's semifinals (24.51).

Gretchen Walsh was the top qualifier in 24.06, just ahead of Torri Huske at 24.09. Abbey Weitzeil, who, like Manuel, has clinched a spot on her third Olympic team as a relay swimmer, was next in 24.48.

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Katie Ledecky and Paige Madden celebrate after the Women's 800 freestyle finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Katie Ledecky reacts after winning the Women's 800 freestyle finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Kate Douglass swims during the Women's 200 individual medley finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the Men's 100 butterfly finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh celebrate after the Women's 200 individual medley finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the Men's 100 butterfly finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Caeleb Dressel swims during the Men's 100 butterfly finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Kate Douglass swins during the Women's 200 individual medley finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Kate Douglass swims during the Women's 200 individual medley finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the Men's 100 butterfly finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

BEIRUT (AP) — Iran announced Saturday that a prominent general in its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sanctioned by the U.S. died in an airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.

Abbas Nilforushan, 58, was killed Friday in Lebanon, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The U.S. Treasury had identified Nilforushan as the deputy commander for operations in the Guard. It sanctioned him in 2022 and said he had led an organization “directly in charge of protest suppression, which has played a critical role in arresting protest leaders during previous protests.” Those sanctions came amid the monthslong protests over the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly not wearing her headscarf, or hijab, to the liking of police.

Nilforushan also served in Syria backing President Bashar Assad in his country’s decades-long war that grew out of the 2011 Arab Spring that swept the wider Middle East. He served in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s like many of his colleagues.

In 2020, Iranian state television called him “comrade” of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of its expeditionary Quds Force who was killed in 2020 U.S. drone attack in Baghdad. In 2021, Nilforushan told state TV that Israel was not in a capacity to pose a threat against Iran over what he described as Israel’s weakness.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah group confirmed on Saturday that its leader and one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day.

A statement said Nasrallah “has joined his fellow martyrs.” Hezbollah vowed to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”

Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, is by far the most powerful target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leadership were meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes, which leveled six apartment buildings. Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front and other commanders were also killed, the Israeli military said.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesperson, said the airstrike was based on years of tracking Nasrallah along with “real time information” that made it viable. He declined to say what munitions were used in the strike or provide an estimate on civilian deaths, only saying that Israel takes measures to avoid civilians whenever possible and clears strikes ahead of time with intelligence and legal experts.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas in a statement issued condolences to its ally, Hezbollah. Nasrallah frequently described launching rockets against northern Israel as a “support front” for Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza.

“History has proven that the resistance ... whenever its leaders die as martyrs, will be succeeded on the same path by a generation of leaders who are more valiant, stronger and more determined to continue the confrontation,” the Hamas statement said.

It added that “assassinations will only increase the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine in determination and resolve.”

Immediately after the official confirmation from Hezbollah, people starting firing in the air in Beirut and other areas of the country, to mourn Nasrallah's death. Some were protesting that he was killed because of his support for the war in Gaza. “Wish it was our kids, not you, Sayyid!” said one woman, using an honorific title for Nasrallah, as she clutched her baby in the western city of Baabda.

Israel’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Saturday that the elimination of Nasrallah was “not the end of our toolbox,” indicating that more strikes were planned.

Israel has vowed to step up pressure on Hezbollah until it halts its attacks that have displaced tens of thousands of Israelis from communities near the Lebanese border. The recent fighting has also displaced more than 200,000 Lebanese in the past week, according to the United Nations.

The military said Saturday it was mobilizing additional reserve soldiers as tensions escalate with Lebanon, activating three battalions of reserve soldiers to serve across the country. It sent two brigades to northern Israel earlier in the week to train for a possible ground invasion.

Shoshani, the army spokesperson, said that Israel has inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah’s capabilities over the past week by targeting a combination of immediate threats and strategic weapons, such as larger, guided missiles. But he said much of Hezbollah’s arsenal still remains intact and that Israel would continue to target the group. The Israeli military updated guidelines for Israeli citizens, canceling gatherings of more than 1,000 people due to the ongoing threat.

Approximately 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes along the Lebanese border for almost a year. Earlier this month, Israel's government said halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the country’s north to allow residents to return to their homes is an official war goal.

Iranian state television read the announcement from Hezbollah confirming Nasrallah's death live, but there was no other immediate comment. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a Saturday message said "the resistance movement, heading by Hezbollah, will decide the fate of the region,” in a statement read on state TV.

Iran is the main supporter of Lebanese Hezbollah and other militant groups in the region.

Also on Saturday, Iran’s influential parliamentary committee of national security demanded “strong” response to Israel following a meeting of the committee. State TV also said people staged anti-Israeli rallies in support of Hezbollah in major cities and town across the country.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of declared a three-day period of mourning in his country. Sudani came to power with the backing of a coalition of Iran-backed political factions, many of which have armed wings that are allied with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah started firing rockets on Israel in support of Gaza on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducting another 250. Since then, the two sides have been engaged in cross-border strikes that have gradually escalated and displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border.

Hostilities escalated dramatically last week when thousands of explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, killing dozens of people and leaving thousands, including many civilians, with severe injuries to the eyes, face and limbs. Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack. Israel has also killed several top Hezbollah commanders in Beirut, especially in the past two weeks, in addition to the attack that killed Nasrallah.

Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based think tank Institute for National Security Studies and former intelligence analyst for the Israeli military and prime minister’s office, noted that Nasrallah was sometimes a “voice of reason,” interested in engaging Israel in a war of attrition and holding the militant group back from using the full force of their formidable arsenal against Israel.

Nasrallah's death could prompt some less senior members of Hezbollah to unleash much stronger weapons than have been used in the nearly yearlong exchange of hostilities between Hezbollah and Lebanon, she said. The biggest question mark right now, though, is how Iran will respond, said Mizrahi.

She added that Nasrallah's death could provide a window of opportunity, while the organization is significantly weakened, for Lebanon to dilute Hezbollah’s far-reaching influence, especially in the south, that threatens to drag Lebanon into a full-scale war with Israel.

On Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, including targeting a storage facility for anti-ship missiles in Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Israel said the missiles were stored underground beneath civilian apartment buildings. Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles across northern and central Israel and deep into the Israel-occupied West Bank, damaging some buildings in the northern town of Safed.

In Beirut’s southern suburbs, smoke rose and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes. Shelters set up in the city center for displaced people were overflowing. Many families slept in public squares and beaches or in their cars. On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.

At least 720 people have been killed in Lebanon over the past week by Israeli airstrikes, according to the Health Ministry.

Mroue reported from Beirut. Abby Sewell in Beirut; Lujain Jo in Baabda, Lebanon; Nasser Karimi in Tehran; and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

Children with their families lie on the ground in Beirut's Martyrs' square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises at the site of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People check a damaged building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Choueifat, south east of Beirut, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises as a building collapses in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Families gather in Martyrs' square after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2015 file photo, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah addresses a crowd during the holy day of Ashoura, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Israeli soldiers work on tanks in northern Israel on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke and fire rise following an Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescuers arrive near the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescuers arrive near the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A wounded man sits in an ambulance at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese citizens watch smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Flames rise after an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Rescuers gather as smoke rises from a collapsed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An Israeli soldier carries a shell next to a tank in northern Israel on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)