Hezbollah commanders Ibrahim Aqil (left) and Ahmed Wahbi (right). Click to see full-size image.
Hezbollah top military commander was killed along with other senior members of the group on September 20 when an Israeli strike hit the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
In a statement claiming responsibility for the strike, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that the main target, Ibrahim Aqil, was the head of Hezbollah’s military operations, the acting commander of the group’s elite Radwan Force and was overseeing a planned operation to invade the Galilee.
Aqil, known as Hajj Abdul Qader, was also the most senior military member of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body, after Israel’s assassination of Fuad Shukr in a strike in Beirut in July.
The commander was also wanted by the United States for his alleged role in the 1983 bombings of the American Embassy in Lebanon and the Marines barracks in Beirut.
Hezbollah mourned Aqil in an official statement, saying “one of its great leaders” was killed “on the road to Jerusalem.” The statement also said the “great jihadist leader” had “joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, achievements, and victories.”
Before and after the Israeli strike targeting Aqil, Hezbollah fired some 200 rockets at the northern Galilee and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. No casualties were reported by Hebrew media however.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 14 people were killed and 66 were wounded, including civilians. The ministry said that the Israeli strike leveled the apartment building in the Dahiyeh suburb, where the IDF said that Aqil and the other Hezbollah leaders had been meeting below ground.
The top brass of Hezbollah’s operations array and the leadership of the Radwan Force were killed in the strike alongside Aqil, according to the IDF.
“They gathered underground, under a residential building, in the heart of the Dahiyeh, while using civilians as a human shield. They met to coordinate terror activities against Israeli civilians,” IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.
Hagari added that at least ten members of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force and operations array were killed in the strike, which Lebanese media reported was carried out by an F-35 fighter jet of the Israeli Air Force using two munitions.
“Aqil and the Radwan Force commanders who we attacked are the commanders who drew up and led the Hezbollah terror group’s plan, to be carried out on the day the order was given, to attack into the northern territory of the State of Israel — what they called ‘The plan to conquer the Galilee,’” Hagari said.
In this planned invasion, “Hezbollah intended to raid Israeli territory, occupy the communities of the Galilee, and murder and kidnap Israeli citizens — similar to what Hamas did on October 7,” the spokesman continued.
“The commanders who we eliminated today” had been overseeing attacks on Israeli citizens since October 8, and planned to carry out more such attacks,” he added, calling Aqil “a terrorist with a great deal of blood on his hands, responsible for the deaths of many civilians and innocents.”
In a brief statement after the strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves.”
Hezbollah announced the death of 15 of its fighters after mourning Aqil, including senior commander Ahmed Mahmoud Wahbi who was confirmed to be one of those killed in the Israeli strike on Dahiyeh. Wahbi, also known as Hajj Abu Hussein Samir, was responsible for the group’s Central Training Unit and held several senior positions in the Radwan Force.
The deadly Israeli strike on Beirut came just a few days after an unprecedented sabotage attack in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon, killing 37 people and wounding more than 3,450 others.
Israel was also held responsible for the sabotage attack. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah vowed retaliation in his latest speech.
Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon have been launching near-daily attacks against the Israeli Defense Forces in support of the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli war on the Palestinian enclave last October. While Israel has so far limited its response to strikes, it appears to be heading to an all out war with Lebanon.
So far, the limited confrontation has resulted in 26 civilian deaths in Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as well as the deaths of at least 22 soldiers and security officers. On the Lebanese side, more than 900 people have been killed, including 497 fighters of Hezbollah and over 150 civilians.
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fooking idiots. are hezbollah that dumb? keeping exploding pagers even when the first reports cameout! and waiting for zionists to take out key commanders!