Hezbollah’s Operations Division head Ibrahim Aqil has been killed in an Israeli strike on Friday (Sep 20) after it attacked Beirut’s southern suburbs, reported news agency AFP citing a source close to the Lebanon-based militant group.
The group’s elite Radwan unit chief was killed in what Israel called a “targeted strike”.
The Israeli attack hit near key Hezbollah facilities, the security sources in Lebanon told the news agency.
Who was Ibrahim Aqil?
Aqil, also known as Tahsin, “serves on Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council,” according to the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program.
He was the armed forces’ second-in-command after Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike in July, also in Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold.
Aqil has also been wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut, and in directing the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.
Hezbollah’s local media al-Manar TV reported that the southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, had been subjected to an act of aggression, killing one and injuring 14 people.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that they conducted a targeted strike in Beirut.
“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) conducted a targeted strike in Beirut. At this moment, there are no changes in the Home Front Command defensive guidelines,” the Israeli military said without providing any further details.
How was Hezbollah deputy leader Fuad Shukr killed?
Hezbollah deputy leader Fuad Shukr was lured to his seventh-floor residence from his second-floor office in Beirut in July this year, where he was killed in an airstrike.
The Israeli strike on July 30 killed Shukr, his wife, two other women and two children. Hezbollah was reportedly working with Iran to investigate the security breach that led to the airstrike, killing one of its important assets.
The tensions in West Asia have risen after the pagers and walkie-talkies attack across Lebanon, earlier this week.
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(With inputs from agencies)
