A TOP commander of Lebanese terrorist Hezbollah group has been killed in Syria.
Mustafa Badreddine, who was supervising Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria, died in an explosion in Damascus, a major blow to the Shi’ite group which has played a significant role in the conflict.
Badreddine, 55, had been the mastermind of the group’s involvement in Syria’s civil war since Hezbollah fighters joined the battle on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces against those trying to remove him from power. Hezbollah, along with Iran, has been one of Assad’s strongest backers.
Hezbollah said several others were injured in the blast and that it was investigating the nature of the explosion and whether it was the result of an air raid, missile attack or artillery shelling. It did not say when the explosion happened.
The Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, which is close to the Lebanese Shi’ite 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 taking place near The Hague. A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon’s most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
Hezbollah denies involvement in Hariri’s assassination and says the charges are politically motivated.
Badreddine’s death is the biggest blow to the group since the 2008 assassination of his predecessor, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a bomb attack in Damascus. After that, Badreddine, known among the group’s ranks as Zulfiqar, became Hezbollah’s top military commander and adviser to the group’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
“This martyrdom will be an incentive for more jihad, sacrifices and continuity,” Hezbollah cabinet minister Hussein Haj Hassan said. “As he led the war against takfiris (Sunni extremists), the battles against takfiris will continue until victory is achieved.”
Badreddine was known by several names, including Elias Saab and Sami Issa. He was only known to the public by a decades-old black-and-white photograph of a smiling young man wearing a suit until Hezbollah released a new image of him in military uniform.
Badreddine was also known for his expertise in explosives, apparently developing what would become his trademark explosive technique by adding gas to increase the power of sophisticated explosives.
“Early information from the investigation shows that a strong explosion targeted one of our centres near the Damascus International Airport, leading to the martyrdom of brother commander Mustafa Badreddine and wounded several others,” Hezbollah said in a statement issued on Friday.
Hezbollah said Badreddine was a “great jihadi leader” and that he had joined “the convoy of martyrs, on top of them his comrade and close friend Mughniyeh”.
The group said it will be receiving condolences starting on Friday morning in its stronghold south of Beirut. The funeral was to be held yesterday at a Shi’ite cemetery south of Beirut where Badreddine was to be laid to rest next to Mughniyeh, who was also his brother-in-law.
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