Mustafa Badreddine, a top military commander for Hezbollah, died in an explosion in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group said Friday. In Syria, he was responsible for the Shiite militia’s crucial support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which had been increasingly drawing criticism in his native Lebanon. More recently, the USA government suspected him of running Hezbollah’s military operation in Syria.
Advertisement
Lebanese press report from outside where family members are receiving condolences for the death of top Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine who was killed in an attack in Syria in a southern suburb of Beirut on May 13, 2016. Mughniyeh was killed in a bomb attack in Damascus.
The Lebanon-based group said: “According to preliminary reports, a large explosion targeted one of our positions near Damascus global airport killing brother commander Mustafa Badreddine and wounding other people”.
Several other people were injured in the blast, it said, adding that it will further investigate to determine whether the explosion was caused by an air strike or shelling. While pro-Hezbollah media had quickly pointed the finger of blame at Israel, the statement did not. Hence, as Israeli Hezbollah expert Shimon Shapira noted, it’s reasonable to conclude that Laqqis, like Dehghan, “played an active role in the planning and execution” of the Marine barracks bombing. His sentence was never carried out, and when Saddam Hussein’s army stormed Kuwait in 1990, it inadvertently freed most of the country’s prisoners, including Badreddine.
What do we know of the killing?
According to the USA government, Badreddine commanded Hezbollah’s substantial military operations in Syria – an intervention involving thousands of the Shiite group’s militants who were waging intense ground battles against the Sunni-led rebellion.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in these killings and other attacks on the Shiite terrorist group.
According to one report, a Hezbollah member interrogated by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), described Badreddine as “more dangerous” than Mughniyeh, who was “his teacher in terrorism”.
That deal had sharply reduced a surge in the fighting in Syria’s pre-war commercial capital that had killed more than 300 civilians. About 1,200 Hezbollah fighters are estimated to have died in the Syrian conflict, Reuters reported.
The location of the assassination – if, indeed, this was not a “work accident” – shows the degree to which Hezbollah has lost its shame regarding the extent of its involvement in the Syrian civil war. In 1992, Israeli helicopter gunships ambushed the motorcade of Sayyed Abbas Musawi, killing him, his wife, 5-year-old son and four bodyguards. Once lauded in Lebanon and the Arab world as a heroic resistance movement that stood up to Israel, its staunch support for Assad has been criticized at home, even among its Lebanese support base. It emerged with the help of Iran during the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the early 1980s.
The GCC has taken other punitive measures.
Advertisement
“He said months ago that he would not return from Syria except as a martyr or carrying the flag of victory”.
