Hizbullah says top commander killed in Israeli air strike

Top Hizbullah commander Mustafa Badreddine was killed in an Israeli air strike at the Lebanese-Israeli border this week, the Lebanese Shia group announced on Friday.

“He took part in most of the operations of the Islamic resistance since 1982,” Hizbullah said in a statement announcing his death, describing Badreddine as “the great jihadi leader”. He was killed on Tuesday night, the statement said.

Badreddine, a brother-in-law of the late Hizbullah military commander, Imad Moughniyah, was indicted by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik al-Hariri, and was sanctioned by the United States.

Badreddine was sentenced to death in Kuwait for his role in bomb attacks there in 1983. He escaped from prison in Kuwait after Iraq, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, invaded the country in 1990.

Hizbullah , which is backed by Iran, is fighting in Syria in support of president Bashar al-Assad.

Reuters