Hezbollah chief, commanders killed in Israeli strikes
BEIRUT
Israel has killed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of its top commanders in a series of targeted air strikes on the Iran-backed movement's stronghold in Beirut.
On Friday, an Israeli air strike on the Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut killed Hassan Nasrallah, the group's leader for 32 years.
His death was confirmed a day later by Hezbollah.
Despite leading a life in hiding to avoid assassination, the 64-year-old Nasrallah had wielded great power in Lebanon.
He also enjoyed cult status among his Shiite Muslim supporters, although he was rarely seen in public for security reasons.
"The point of security measures is that movement be kept secret, but that doesn't stop me from moving around and seeing what is happening," Nasrallah told Lebanon's pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar newspaper in a 2004 interview.
Nasrallah was elected secretary-general of Hezbollah in 1992, aged just 32, after an Israeli helicopter gunship killed his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi.
Israel said on Saturday that Nasrallah was one of its "greatest enemies", and that his death made the world "a safer place".
On Sept. 25, a strike killed Ibrahim Mohammed Kobeissi, who commanded several military units including a guided missiles unit.
"Kobeissi was an important source of knowledge in the field of missiles and had close ties with senior Hezbollah military leaders," the Israeli military said.
Kobeissi joined Hezbollah in 1982 and rose through the ranks of the group's forces.
One of the units he led was tasked with manning operations in part of the south of Lebanon, which borders Israel.
A strike on Sept. 26 killed Mohammed Srur, the head of Hezbollah's drone unit since 2020.
Srur studied mathematics and was among a number of top advisers sent by Hezbollah to Yemen to train the country's Huthi rebels, who are also backed by Iran, a source close to Hezbollah said.
He had also played a key role in Hezbollah's intervention since 2013 in Syria's civil war in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Other commanders killed in recent strikes include Muhammad Ali Ismail, Ali Karake, Wissam Tawil and Mohammed Naameh Nasser.
Meanwhile, a strike on July 30 killed Fuad Shukr, one of the group's top military commander.
Shukr, who was in his early 60s, played a key role in cross-border drone and rocket attacks on Israeli forces, according to a source close to Hezbollah.
The two sides have traded near-daily fire across the frontier since Hezbollah ally Hamas's unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Shukr helped found Hezbollah during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war and became a key adviser to Nasrallah.
Shukr was Hezbollah's most senior military commander, and the leader said he had been in daily contact with him since October.
Israel blamed Shukr for a July rocket attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children in a Druze Arab town. Hezbollah denied responsibility.
In 2017, the U.S. Treasury offered a $5 million reward for information on Shukr, saying he had "a central role" in the deadly 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
