Middle East

Top Hezbollah commander in Syria killed by Israel

Hezbollah's top military commander Mustafa Badreddine has been killed in a blast at a base near Damascus airport

Hezbollah’s top military commander Mustafa Badreddine has been killed in a blast at a base near Damascus airport, the Lebanese Shi’ite group said on Friday. Hezbollah has lost at least four prominent figures since 2015 in Syria.

Hezbollah did not immediately say on Friday who it blamed for the attack, but its deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said there were clear indications of who was behind it, and the group would announce the outcome of its investigation within hours. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

At least one Hezbollah figure blamed the group’s age-old enemy Israel, which has struck Hezbollah targets in Syria several times in the past since civil war started there in 2011. Israel declined to comment, but a former Israeli official said his country would be glad Badreddine was dead.

Early reports had suggested that the commander, 55, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike.

He was the commander of Hezbollah’s military wing which is helping the Syrian government drive out foreign-backed DAESH terrorists from the country.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the death of Hezbollah’s military chief will certainly stiffen the Lebanese resistance movement’s determination to fight the Israeli regime and terrorism.

The U.S. government believed Badreddine, 55, was in charge of Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria.

He is the most senior Hezbollah official killed since 2008 when his brother-in-law, long-serving military commander Imad Moughniyah, was blown up by a bomb planted in his car in Damascus that Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

Hezbollah said it was investigating whether the explosion at the base was caused by an air strike, a missile attack or artillery bombardment. It did not say when he was killed.

This is an open war and we should not preempt the investigation but certainly Israel is behind this,” said Nawar al-Saheli, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s parliament, hinting at the prospect of retaliation: “The resistance will carry out its duties at the appropriate time.

Israel never confirms or denies allegations of targeted killings of individuals abroad. When asked by an interviewer on Israel Radio about possible Israeli involvement, cabinet minister Zeev Elkin, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declined to comment.

Hezbollah is Lebanon’s most powerful political and military group, having grown stronger since forcing Israel to end its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000. The sides fought a 34-day war in 2006, their last major conflict.

We don’t know if Israel is responsible for this,” Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu, told Israel’s Army Radio.

But from Israel’s view, the more people with experience, like Badreddine, who disappear from the wanted list, the better,” he said.

Funeral held for Commander Badreddine

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV has shown Badreddine’s family receiving condolences in a suburb of Beirut. Hezbollah has lost at least four prominent figures since 2015 in Syria. A funeral was held in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday afternoon for the assassinated commander. 

Thousands of Hezbollah fighters and leaders gathered at a mosque in Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut and gave Badreddine a military funeral, waving Hezbollah flags.

Speaking at the funeral, Qassem also vowed that the group would continue on the “path” of Badreddine.

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