Hassan Nasrallah, Ibrahim Kobeissi and more… The top 7 Hezbollah commanders killed by Israel

It has been difficult time for Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as it lost seven of its top commanders to Israeli airstrikes. The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was one of the deceased. This year alone saw the demise of more than a dozen key members of the group amid the escalating Gaza war.

Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed on Friday while another eminent leader Abbas Nilforushan, general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard died in the most recent slew of airstrikes over the weekend.

While Israel’s military officials celebrated their breakthrough into Hezbollah’s military and intelligence circle, the rest of West Asia is in shock by this move. Lebanon’s most powerful military group now finds itself in a corner with many key members and commanders missing.

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Let us take a look at some of the leaders who were killed over the weekend.

Hassan Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah has been a force to reckon with since joining Hezbollah in 1992 and led the group through several wars with Israel. He was also the overseer of the party’s transformation into a powerful player in Lebanon. When Hezbollah entered Lebanon’s political arena, it was also taking part in regional conflicts making it the most powerful paramilitary force in the region.

After Syria’s uprising in 2011 spiralled into civil war, Hezbollah played a pivotal role in keeping Syrian President Bashar Assad in power. Under Nasrallah, Hezbollah also helped develop the capabilities of fellow Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Yemen.

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Nasrallah is a divisive figure in Lebanon, with his supporters hailing him for ending Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, and his opponents decrying him for the group’s weapons stockpile and making unilateral decisions that they say serve an agenda for Tehran and allies.

Nabil Kaouk

Killed in an airstrike on Saturday (September 28), Kaouk was the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council. He joined the group in its early days in the 1980s and served as Hezbollah’s military commander in south Lebanon from 1995 until 2010. He made several media appearances and gave speeches to supporters, including at funerals for killed Hezbollah militants. He had been seen as a potential successor to Nasrallah.

Ibrahim Akil

Akil was a top commander and led Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces, which Israel has been trying to push further away from its border with Lebanon. He was also a member of its highest military body, the Jihad Council, and for years had been on the United States’ wanted list. The Unites States State Department says Akil was part of the group that carried out the 1983 bombing of the United States Embassy in Beirut and orchestrated the taking of German and American hostages.

Ahmad Wehbe

Wehbe was a commander of the Radwan Forces and played a crucial role in developing the group since its formation almost two decades ago. He was killed alongside Akil in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs that struck and levelled a building.

Ali Karaki

Karaki led Hezbollah’s southern front, playing a key role in the ongoing conflict. The US described him as a significant figure in the militant group’s leadership. Little is known about Karaki, who was killed alongside Nasrallah.

Mohammad Surour

Surour was the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, which was used for the first time in this current conflict with Israel. Under his leadership, Hezbollah launched exploding and reconnaissance drones deep into Israel, penetrating its defence systems which had mostly focused on the group’s rockets and missiles.

Ibrahim Kobeissi

Kobeissi led Hezbollah’s missile unit. The Israeli military says Kobeissi planned the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli soldiers at the northern border in 2000, whose bodies were returned in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah four years later.

Other senior commanders killed in action

Even in the months before the recent escalation of the war with Hezbollah, Israel’s military had targeted top commanders, most notably Fuad Shukur in late July, hours before an explosion in Iran widely blamed on Israel killed the leader of the Palestinian Hamas militant group Ismail Haniyeh. The US accuses Fuad Shukur of orchestrating the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen.

Other key leaders of units in the south who were also assassinated in the weekend airstrikes included Jawad Tawil, Taleb Abdullah and Mohammad Nasser.

Who is left?

One of the founding members of Hezbollah and Nasrallah’s second-in-command Naim Kassem is right now the most senior member of the organisation.

Kassem is the only top official of the militant group who has conducted interviews with local and international media in the ongoing conflict.

The deputy leader appears to be involved in various aspects of the  group, both in top political and security matters, but also in matters related to Hezbollah’s theocratic and charity initiatives to the Shia Muslim community in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Hashim Safieddine who heads Hezbollah’s central council, has been named as Nasrallah’s successor. Safieddine is a cousin of the late Hezbollah leader, and his son is married to the daughter of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a US drone strike in 2020. Like Nasrallah, Safieddine joined Hezbollah early on and similarly wears a black turban.

Talal Hamieh and Abu Ali Reda are the two remaining top commanders from Hezbollah who are alive and apparently in the Israeli military’s crosshairs.

With inputs from AP