Hezbollah said late Thursday their top commander was killed in a “large explosion” in Syria’s capital. Thousands of guerrillas fighting alongside Syria’s military were crucial to tipping battles in the government’s favor on multiple fronts, from the suburbs of Damascus to the northern province of Aleppo.
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The Assad regime has always been supported by the Alawite sect, who are considered heretics by ISIS and other Sunni jihadi groups but are considered close to Shia Muslims.
“I do think it will affect their morale”.
Those behind the explosion that killed Badreddine remained a mystery.
But second-in-command Sheikh Naim Qassem told mourners at the funeral he was killed in a “huge blast” at a Hezbollah position near Damascus airport.
Earlier this month Eastern Ghouta was rocked by bloody clashes between Al-Nusra-backed rebel group Faylaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
An internal investigation is underway to figure out whether he was killed by an air strike, missile attack or artillery bombardment.
Badreddine was purportedly running all of Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria since 2011, the BBC reported. Israeli officials refused to comment.
The group announced Badreddine’s death without saying when the attack occurred.
Badreddine, in his mid-50s, was a key player in Hezbollah s military wing.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday wrote a letter of condolence to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, relaying to him “that martyrdom of this great commander Mustafa will further strengthen resistance forces against the Zionist and terrorism”.
An indictment from the ongoing Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague details Badreddine’s role in bombings in Kuwait in 1983, that targeted the French and USA embassies and other facilities, and killed six people.
Mustafa Badreddine, whose nom de guerre was Sayyid Zul Fikar after the sword of Imam Ali, had been an active member of Hezbollah for a long time. The Gulf countries are also expelling Lebanese expatriates they say have ties to Hezbollah.
In Beirut, Hezbollah expert Waddah Charara said Badreddine had also been responsible for training Shiite militiamen in Iraq and had a direct link with Iran.
A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon’s most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
Hezbollah fighters carried the coffin of Badreddine through the streets of southern Beirut Friday in a funeral procession. They chanted Shi’ite religious slogans, as well as “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
Thousands of Hezbollah fighters are assisting government forces on battlefields across Syria, particularly those near the Lebanese border, and hundreds are believed to have been killed.
“Takfiri” is a word used by the group to refer to hard-line, armed, Sunni Islamist groups.
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“For us, there is only one enemy, which is Israel and those siding with it”.
