Israel blamed with killing Hezbollah military commander in Syria.

Mustafa Badreddine died in a "great explosion". Some speak of an Israeli raid on Damascus airport. Badreddine under US sanctions for his support for Assad and accused of being one of the architects of Rafic Hariri's death. He was also implicated in the attack on the US base in Beirut in 1983.

 


Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The military leader of Hezbollah in Syria, Mustafa Badreddine, has been killed in a "great explosion" in Syria, at Damascus International Airport. The announcement was made this morning from Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut, without giving many details.

Previously, the Lebanese al Mayadeen television channel had declared that Badreddine had been killed in Syria during an Israeli raid. Israel has not commented.

The Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah (the "Party of God", of Shiite extraction), have for years been at the side of Bashar Assad in his fight against the fundamentalist opposition.

In recent years Israel has often carried out targeted raids and bombings on Hezbollah convoys, worried about  the movements growing military arsenal , which has always proclaimed a war against Israel for the liberation of Palestine.

In its efforts to counter Hezbollah in Syria, Israel has been accused of playing the game of the anti-Assad Islamic fundamentalists and Saudi Arabia.

Badreddine’s death means the movement’s loss of one of its most important military leaders, after the death of Imad Mughniye, another military leader, whose murder is attributed to Israel.

Announcing his death, Hezbollah recalled that Badreddine "took part in many of the Islamic resistance operations since 1982", when Hezbollah was founded.

Born in 1961, Badreddine was under US sanctions for his role in the military operations in Syria. He had also been accused by the UN Special Court for having participated in the murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. In Kuwait had been sentenced to death for his role in the 1983 attack on an American marines base in Beirut, costing the lives of 241 people.