The Hezbollah commanders killed in Israeli strikes
Israel has killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of its top commanders in a series of strikes targeting the Iran-backed movement’s top brass, dealing a major blow to the Shiite movement.
Here is what we know about the commanders slain over the past year.
– Nasrallah: Hezbollah chief –
On Friday, an Israeli air strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold killed Hassan Nasrallah, who had led the group for 32 years.
Hezbollah confirmed his death a day later.
Despite years of living in hiding to evade assassination, the 64-year-old Nasrallah wielded great power in Lebanon.
He had cult-like following among his Shiite Muslim supporters, despite rarely appearing in public.
“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 became Hezbollah’s secretary-general in 1992, aged 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”.
– Shukr: right-hand man –
A strike on July 30 killed Fuad Shukr, one of Hezbollah’s top military commanders.
Shukr, 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 launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
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 US Treasury offered a $5 million reward for information on Shukr, saying he had “a central role” in the deadly 1983 bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.
– Aqil: US bounty –
A strike on September 20 killed Ibrahim Aqil, head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, along with 15 other commanders.
Lebanese officials said the attack killed 55 people, many of them civilians.
A source close to Hezbollah described Aqil as the second-in-command in the group’s forces after Shukr.
The Radwan Force is Hezbollah’s most formidable offensive unit and its fighters are trained in cross-border infiltration, a source close to the group told AFP.
The United States said Aqil was a member of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, the movement’s highest military body.
The US Treasury said he was a “principal member” of the Islamic Jihad Organisation — a Hezbollah-linked group behind the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people and an attack on the US Marine Corps barracks in the Lebanese capital the same year that killed 241 US soldiers.
– Ali Karake –
Considered Hezbollah’s number three military commander, Karake was killed in the same September 27 strike that claimed Nasrallah’s life, according to the group.
Karake was a member of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s supreme command, and served as the commander of the southern front. He survived several assassination attempts.
The Israeli army said he was a member of Nasrallah’s inner circle.
– Kobeissi: missiles expert –
On September 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 its ranks.
One of the units he led was tasked with manning operations in southern Lebanon, bordering Israel.
– Srur: drone chief –
A strike on September 26 killed Srur, the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit since 2020.
Srur studied mathematics and was one of several senior advisers Hezbollah sent 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 significant role in Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria’s civil war from 2013, supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
– Nabil Qaouq –
A prominent figure in Hezbollah since the 1980s, Qaouq held the position of deputy head of Hezbollah’s central council when he was killed in an air strike on September 28 in a Beirut suburb.
He had served as Hezbollah’s military commander in southern Lebanon.
– Wissam Tawil –
Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s Al-Radwan unit, was killed in an Israeli air strike in January on his vehicle in southern Lebanon, along with two other regional commanders — Mohammed Nasser and Taleb Abdallah.
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