Whatever its source, the explosion cut short the career of a man widely considered to be the group’s No. 2 leader as well as the heir apparent of Imad Mugniyeh, the Hezbollah operative assassinated by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Mossad in 2008 in the Syrian capital, and Badreddine’s brother-in-law.
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“There is a history, there is a tension”, said Matthew Levitt, a Washington Institute expert of Hezbollah, though he underlined that any talk of a culprit in Badreddine’s death is speculation at the point.
Islamic State and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front are amongst those being fought.
A top Hezbollah commander has been killed in an air strike carried out by Israel in Syria, media reported.
He is also alleged to have taken “overall control” of the suicide auto bomb attack that killed Rafik Hariri and 21 others in Beirut in February 2005.
Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah says “takfiri groups” are responsible for Mustafa Badreddine’s death.
“There has been no recorded shelling or firing from the Eastern Ghouta area onto Damascus International Airport for more than a week”, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters.
He said a probe was under way, but “because there are many possibilities, we don t want to anticipate the investigation”.
Regardless of his position, Badreddine was lionized in Hezbollah and infamous for his alleged role in some of the most politically significant bombings and assassinations in the region during the past 30 years.
A funeral was to be held Friday afternoon at a Shiite cemetery south of Beirut where Badreddine was to be laid to rest next to Mughniyeh, who was also his brother-in-law.
Thousands of mourners, including high-level Hezbollah officials, turned out to Badreddine’s funeral on Friday in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
He reportedly served as an adviser to the group’s overall leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Badreddine became the group’s top commander in 2008 after his predecessor, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a suspected Israeli auto bomb assassination in Damascus.
It made no such threats after Badreddine s death.
Hezbollah’s deployment of fighters to Syria has increased the group’s enemies beyond its traditional rival, Israel, to include Sunni extremists.
On Saturday, it said a probe had concluded that Sunni Islamist radicals known as “takfiris”, who consider Shiites to be heretics, had killed Badreddine.
Hezbollah has sent thousands of troops to support Syria’s President Assad.
A U.S. Department of the Treasury statement detailing sanctions against Badreddine past year said he was assessed to be responsible for the group’s military operations in Syria since 2011.
The pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar newspaper said Badreddine was killed on Thursday night.
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Damascus airport is east of the capital in an area where various rebel groups have a strong presence, although pro-government forces control the highway to it.
