Gambiaj.com – (BEIRUT, Lebanon) – An Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, has reportedly killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, also known as Tahsin. Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health confirmed that the attack left 12 people dead and 66 others injured, though Hezbollah has yet to officially confirm Aqil’s death.
Aqil, a high-ranking leader in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, was attending a joint meeting with an unnamed Palestinian group when the Israeli strike destroyed at least two buildings in the area. Witness footage captured scenes of devastation, with piles of grey rubble and thick dust covering the streets and parked cars, as Lebanese Civil Defence forces searched for survivors.
The strike is the second recent attack targeting Hezbollah’s top leadership in Beirut. In July, an Israeli air raid killed Fuad Shukr, the group’s top military commander. The death of Aqil, who was considered the second-in-command of Hezbollah’s armed forces, would mark another significant loss for the organization.
Aqil, who had a $7 million bounty on his head from the US Department of State, served on Hezbollah’s highest military body and was wanted by the United States for his alleged involvement in the 1983 bombings of the US Embassy and the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut. These attacks, which were claimed by the Islamic Jihad Organization, a Hezbollah cell of which Aqil was a senior member, resulted in the deaths of 63 people at the embassy and 241 US personnel at the barracks. Aqil was also implicated in the kidnapping of American and German nationals during the 1980s.
The attack comes on the heels of another unprecedented incident earlier in the week, in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded, killing 37 people and injuring thousands. Aqil was reportedly injured in that incident and had just been discharged from the hospital earlier on Friday, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The Radwan Force, to which Aqil belonged, is at the forefront of Hezbollah’s cross-border operations against Israel. His death, if confirmed, would be a severe blow to the group’s military command structure and a significant escalation in the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
