Hezbollah leader Nasrallah dies in Israeli strike, upending region

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Hezbollah leader Nasrallah ***** in ******** strike, upending region

WASHINGTON − Hassan Nasrallah, the revered and reviled longtime leader of Hezbollah, was ******* Friday in an ******** airstrike, the ******** Defense Forces said.

Nasrallah, “the leader of the Hezbollah ********** organization and one of its founders, was eliminated by the IDF,” the ******** military said in a statement Saturday.

“Following precise intelligence,” the statement said, fighter jets “conducted a targeted strike on the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah ********** organization, which was located underground embedded under a residential building in the area of Dahieh in Beirut.”

Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s ******, saying it would continue its battle against ******* “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people.”

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Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gives a televised address, Lebanon, September 19, 2024, in this screenshot taken from a video.

An underground meeting, and a massive crater

The decapitation ******* on *******’s strongest neighboring foe was a political earthquake for the region, threatening an armed response against ******** and U.S. targets from Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

“It’s huge,” said Mohamad Bazzi, director of the Kevorkian Center for Near East Studies at New York University. “It’s a tremendous ***** to Hezbollah. It’s a ***** to Iran.”

Nasrallah was among the most important leaders in the Middle East, commanding tens of thousands of fighters and armed with missiles supplied by the Shia Islamist movement’s patron, Iran. Hezbollah governs southern Lebanon and its nearly 1 million residents independent of the weak Lebanese government.

“The strike was conducted while Hezbollah’s senior chain of command were operating from the headquarters and advancing ********** activities against the citizens of the State of *******,” the ******** statement said.

Friday’s airstrike on Dahiyeh shook Beirut. A security source in Lebanon told Reuters the ******* − a quick succession of massively powerful blasts − had left a crater more than 20 yards deep. It was unclear how many people were *******.

It was followed on Saturday by further airstrikes on Dahiyeh and other parts of Lebanon. Huge explosions lit up the night sky, and more strikes hit the area Saturday morning. Smoke rose over the city.

The ****** of the militant movement’s longtime leader came after a week of ******** attacks that Tel Aviv said were meant to neuter Hezbollah’s military capabilities and allow 60,000 residents of northern ******* to return to homes evacuated due to months of rocket ***** from over the Lebanon border.

More: Netanyahu vows to continue Hezbollah attacks, rails against *******’s critics in UN speech

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An image of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen during the ******** of a Hezbollah member in Kfar Melki, Lebanon, on Sept. 19, 2024, after handheld pagers and walkie-talkies detonated.

Hezbollah has been ******* rockets into ******* since the Oct. 7 ****** rampage in southern ******* and

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of the coastal enclave.

More than 1,500 people have been ******* in Lebanon in the last week, and more than 90,000 displaced, on top of 100,000 forced to flee since October.

A key figure in the ‘Axis of resistance’

Among supporters, Nasrallah has been lauded for standing up to ******* and defying the ******* States. To enemies, he was head of a ********** organization and a proxy for Iran’s Shia Islamist theocracy in its tussle for influence in the Middle East.

“No doubt, he is a particularly important figure,” Bazzi told USA TODAY. “He’s very charismatic, an excellent orator.”

Still, Bazzi said, “His star has fallen in the Middle East since Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian civil war,” when Hezbollah fighters were key to the survival of Bashar al Assad’s brutal government.

Nasrallah’s regional influence has been on display over nearly a year of conflict ignited by the Gaza war, as Hezbollah entered the fray by ******* on ******* from southern Lebanon in support of its ************ ally ******, and Yemeni and Iraqi groups followed suit, operating under the umbrella of an Iran-led “Axis of Resistance.”

“We are facing a great battle,” Nasrallah said in an Aug. 1 speech at the ******** of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, who had been ******* in an ******** strike.

More: ******* shoots down first Hezbollah missile aimed at Tel Aviv as group says it targeted spy agency

Pager blasts and a change in fortune

Yet when thousands of Hezbollah members were injured and dozens *******, when their pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in an apparent ******** ******* last week, that battle began to turn against his group.

Responding to the attacks on Hezbollah’s communications network in a Sept. 19 speech, Nasrallah vowed to punish *******.

“This is a reckoning that will come, its nature, its size, how and where? This is certainly what we will keep to ourselves and in the narrowest circle even within ourselves,” he said.

He has not given a broadcast address since then.

More: U.S., EU and nine other nations call for 21-day cease-***** on *******-Lebanon border

******* has meanwhile dramatically escalated its attacks, ******** several senior Hezbollah commanders in targeted strikes and unleashing a massive bombardment in Hezbollah-controlled areas of Lebanon, which has ******* hundreds of people.

******* said Friday’s strike also ******* Ali Karki, who it identified as the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, and other leaders.

Iran on Friday accused ******* of using U.S.-made “bunker buster” ****** in the *******.

‘Serious security breaches’

“There have clearly been serious security breaches in Hezbollah,” Bazzi said. “It begs the question of how and why he was moving around at this point.”

“This is severe, decapitating in some ways.” Still, Bazzi added, “They are also set up − Nasrallah has made this point himself − as an organization that will continue as leaders get *******.”

Recognized even by his enemies as a charismatic orator, Nasrallah’s speeches were followed by friend and foe alike.

Wearing the ****** turban of a sayyed, or a descendent of the Prophet Mohammad, Nasrallah used his addresses to rally Hezbollah’s base but also to deliver carefully calibrated threats, often wagging his finger as he did so.

He became secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992 at 35, the public face of a once shadowy group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to ****** ******** forces in southern Lebanon.

******* ******* his predecessor, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, in a helicopter *******. Nasrallah led Hezbollah when its guerrillas finally drove ******** forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.

Hezbollah and ******* fought to a standstill in a 2006 war.

(This story has been updated with new information.)

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:

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