Top commander’s death sees Hezbollah ‘biggest loss’ since 2008
“I don’t think war is inevitable”, stated U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on July 31st, a view that appears to be more and more untenable with the prospect of a full-scale war appearing more likely following multiple assassinations of senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials.
Among those killed, Fuad Shukr, a top commander and founder of Hezbollah, was killed by Israeli forces on August 1st – one of the heaviest blows to the Iran-backed group since the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, reported Reuters and agencies
Shukr was critical in expanding the militant group from a shadowy Lebanese civil war militia to a major force in the Middle East.
The assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Shukr have created not only a major political setback for the Palestinian Islamist group but also deprived them of a top military leader.
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Shukr, also known as Al-Hajj Mohsin, was part of a generation of Lebanese Shi’ite Muslims inspired ideologically by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, who started fighting Israeli troops following the invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The late commander played a central role in the Beirut bombings of the U.S. Marine Barracks in 1983, which resulted in the death of 241 U.S. military personnel, according to the United States. According to the U.S. government’s Reward for Justice website, a bounty of up to $5 million was set on Shukr’s head.
The bounty was announced concerning Shukr’s supposed involvement in Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad in the early years of the Syrian Civil War. This claim was dismissed by Hezbollah, who found the accusations to be “rejected and void”.
Israel has also claimed that Shukr was responsible for the killing of numerous Israeli citizens and foreign nationals.
READ: Doha mourns Haniyeh, Hezbollah chief threatens retaliation
The 61-year-old military leader was assassinated by Israel in retaliation for the July 27th rocket attacks in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which resulted in the deaths of 12 children aged between 10 and 16. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack and instead blamed Israel.
As a senior Hezbollah commander from 1985 to the mid-nineties, Shukr developed Hezbollah’s attack. According to al-Akbhar, the militant group’s arsenal also expanded to include anti-tank missiles and more advanced weaponry such as precision-guided missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets, and drones.
Shukr was closely affiliated with a founding member of Lebanon’s Islamic Jihad Organization and former number 2 in Hezbollah leadership, Imad Mughniyeh, who was known as a legendary commander by his peers and an ‘untraceable ghost’ by intelligence agencies seeking him. Mugniyeh was assassinated in Syria when walking past a planted car bomb in a joint CIA-Mossad operation in 2008.
Reuters and agencies
