This Friday’s Israeli bombing of Beirut, Lebanon, had the Hezbollah operational commander as its main target. Ibrahim Akil, according to advanced information, was killed during a meeting with members of the Radwan Unit, an elite organization within the Iranian-backed terrorist group.
Ibrahim Akil, who was born in Lebanon in the 1960s, was wanted for years by the US Department of Justice on suspicion of involvement in two truck bombings in Beirut in 1983 that killed 63 people at a North American embassy and 307 people at an international peacekeeping camp and 241 North American soldiers.
The United States accused Akil of plotting to kidnap American and German hostages in Lebanon. As a result of the suspicion, in 2019 he was placed on the list of specially designated global terrorists, with a price on his head of seven million dollars (about 6.3 million euros).
Akil, one of Hezbollah’s key leaders, has survived several assassination attempts by Israeli forces over the years — the latest of which was this week. According to Al-JazeeraHe was among those injured in the Israeli operation Pagers Nine people were killed and more than 2750 injured in Lebanon. A quote from an Israeli newspaper HaaretzArab media reported that the commander was released from hospital this Friday.
Newspaper The New York Times Go back more than 20 years to recall another attempt: In 2000, in an attack to avenge the death of a pro-Israel militia commander in southern Lebanon, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Akhil’s car. The Hezbollah leader escaped with minor injuries.
A former Israeli soldier, Assaf Orion, quoted in a North American newspaper, says Akhil was the key to Hezbollah’s military apparatus, participating in “several” attacks against Israelis.
US State Department/Manual via REUTERS
The Shiite commander’s death is a severe blow to Hezbollah’s structure and comes months after the assassination of Fuad Shukr, another Hezbollah commander considered close to the group’s leader, who was killed in a suburb of Beirut.
Akil, known by the nicknames Tahsin and Abdelkader, has been linked to Hezbollah practically from its foundation — even Reuters says he was one of the founding members of the Lebanese group and was initially a fighter for another Lebanese Shiite movement, Amal. .
led by Militia combat forces in southern Lebanon At the turn of the millennium, Ibrahim Akil was seen as one of the key figures who transformed Hezbollah, an obscure militia, into the most powerful military and political organization in Lebanon.