Israel says it killed Hezbollah official who was set to be group’s next leader
Israel said it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the Hezbollah official set to become the militant group’s next leader, in an airstrike outside Beirut this month.
Israel said Tuesday that it had killed the Hezbollah official poised to become the militant group’s next leader in an airstrike outside Beirut earlier this month.
Hashem Safieddine was expected to succeed his cousin Hassan Nasrallah, one of the founding members of the Iran-backed Lebanese group, who was killed last month in a large-scale Israeli attack on a southern suburb of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Hezbollah has so far not confirmed Safieddine’s death.
In a statement Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said Safieddine was killed about three weeks ago in an airstrike that hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. At the time of the strike, more than 25 Hezbollah members were inside the underground headquarters, it said.
The commander of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, Ali Hussein Hazima, who the IDF said was responsible for directing numerous attacks on Israeli troops, was also killed in the strike.
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