Top Lebanese Hezbollah military commander Mustafa Badreddine killed in Syria
Badreddine’s death is the biggest blow to the militant group since the 2008 assassination of his predecessor, Imad Mughniyeh.
Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said on Friday that its top military commander Mustafa Badreddine was killed in an explosion in the Syrian capital of Damascus, a major blow to the Shiite group which has played a significant role in the conflict next door.
Badreddine, 55, had been supervising the group’s involvement in Syria’s civil war since Hezbollah fighters joined the battles along with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against militant groups trying to remove him from power, according to pro-Hezbollah media. Hezbollah, along with Iran, has been one of Assad’s strongest backers.
Hezbollah said several others were wounded in the blast. It said it was investigating the nature of the explosion and whether it was the result of an air raid, missile attack or artillery shelling.
The Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV that is close to the group earlier said Badreddine was killed in an Israeli air strike but later removed the report.
Badreddine was one of four people being tried in absentia for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The 2005 suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others was one of the Middle East’s most dramatic political assassinations. The trial is ongoing near The Hague, Netherlands.
A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon’s most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.