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Ibrahim Aqil | |
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ابراهيم عقيل | |
Member of the Jihad Council | |
Personal details | |
Born | Bednayel, Beqaa Valley, Lebanon [1] | 24 December 1962
Died | 20 September 2024 61) Haret Hreik, Lebanon | (aged
Manner of death | Assassination by airstrike |
Political party | Hezbollah |
Other political affiliations | Islamic Jihad Organization (Lebanon) |
Known for | Commander in Chief of Redwan Force, involvement in the 1983 US embassy and Beirut barracks bombings |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Hezbollah |
Branch/service | Hezbollah military wing |
Rank | Commander in Chief |
Unit | Redwan Force |
Battles/wars | |
Part of a series on |
Hezbollah |
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Ibrahim Aqil (or Ibrahim Akil, Arabic : ابراهيم عقيل; 24 December 1962 – 20 September 2024), also known as Al-Hajj Tahsin or Tahsin, [2] or by his alias Al-Hajj Abdul Khader, was a Lebanese militant [3] who served as a commander in chief of Hezbollah's Redwan Force. [2] [3] [4] He was a member of the Jihad Council, which oversees the military and security operations of the organisation. [2] Some considered Aqil as the de facto Chief of Staff of Hezbollah. [5]
In the 1980s, Aqil was a key figure in Hezbollah's cell responsible for the 1983 US embassy bombing and the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings. [3] On 21 July 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Aqil under Executive Order 13582 for his role in Hezbollah. In September 2019, the U.S. Department of State listed him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. [2] The Rewards for Justice Program offered a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his capture. [3] [6] He is thought to have served as the deputy to Fuad Shukr, the former commander of Hezbollah's military wing, before Shukr's death. [4]
On 20 September 2024, Aqil was killed by an Israeli Air Force strike in Haret Hreik, Lebanon. [7] [8]
In the 1980s, Aqil was a key figure in the Islamic Jihad Organization, a group affiliated with Hezbollah. The organization carried out the 1983 US embassy bombing in Beirut, killing 63 people, and the attacks on the multinational force bases in Beirut resulted in the deaths of 305 people. During the 1980s, Aqil was responsible for the kidnapping of American and German hostages. [9]
On 4 February 2000, during the South Lebanon conflict, Israeli AH-64 Apache helicopters fired AGM-114 Hellfire missiles at Aqil's car in the village of Barish, where he was serving as Hezbollah's commander of the South Lebanon sector (or the western sector in South Lebanon). [10] The first missile struck the rear of the car and threw him out. He escaped and hid behind a building. The second missile destroyed the car. After being spotted hiding, another missile was fired at him and hit the wall. Aqil was lightly injured and managed to escape the incident. [11] [12] Five civilians, including an infant, were also injured. [13]
During the 2006 Lebanon War, Aqil was responsible for coordinating intelligence between Hezbollah and the Syrian army. [14] A month later, in September 2006, while serving as the head of Hezbollah's security and intelligence services, the "Intelligence Online" reported that Aqil was one of three Hezbollah operatives, along with Hassan Nasrallah and Mustafa Badreddine, who visited North Korea for several months during the 1980s and early 1990s for training. [15]
On 21 July 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Aqil as closely tied to Hezbollah's leadership and acting on its behalf, along with other senior figures in the organization—Mustafa Badreddine, Fuad Shukr, and Abd al-Nur Shalaan. [3] He was identified as playing a key role in Hezbollah's military campaign in Syria by assisting the organization's fighters and pro-Syrian regime forces against Syrian opposition forces during the Syrian Civil War. Aqil had also been sought through several 'Red Notices' by Interpol, documenting his long history with the organization, including involvement in the kidnapping and holding of two German citizens in the late 1980s and the bombing campaign in Paris in 1986. [16] [17]
In May 2016, following the assassination of Mustafa Badreddine, Aqil was one of two candidates (alongside Fuad Shukr) considered to succeed him as Hezbollah's defence minister (though others identified Fuad Shukr in this role). [5]
On 10 September 2019, the U.S. Department of State designated him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. [3] On 18 April 2023, the Rewards for Justice program offered a reward of up to $7 million for information about him. [3]
Before his death, Aqil served as the head of Hezbollah's operations [5] and was responsible for the Redwan Force, [2] among other things, during the Hezbollah–Israel conflict that began following Hezbollah's attacks on Israel the day after Hamas' October 7 attacks. [18] He also led Hezbollah's tunnel project in Lebanon. [5] He was reportedly injured during the 2024 Lebanon pager explosions and released from the hospital on the day of his assassination. [19] In the event of an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Aqil's unit had planned to conduct a counter-operation, similar to the October 7 attacks, in northern Israel. [20] The unit would also be involved in defending southern Lebanon from an Israeli invasion. [21]
On 20 September 2024, Israeli F-35 fighter jets fired four missiles at a residential building in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut, targeting Aqil, who was at a meeting two stories underground. The airstrike killed at least 37 people including senior Hezbollah commander Ahmed Mahmoud Wahabi, other 14 high-ranking Hezbollah militants, three children, and seven women, injured another 68, and caused the two buildings to collapse. [22] [23] [24] The Israeli military confirmed the attack targeted Aqil, and later confirmed Aqil's death. [25] Saudi reports were the first to report his death. [26] [27] IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Aqil and other top leadership of the elite Radwan Force were gathered underground when they were targeted and killed in the Israeli airstrike. He also claimed that at least 10 Hezbollah commanders were killed in the airstrike in Beirut. [28] Hezbollah also confirmed Aqil's death. [29]
Mustafa Badreddine, also known as Mustafa Badr Al Din, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Mustafa Youssef Badreddine, Sami Issa, and Elias Fouad Saab, was a military leader of Hezbollah and both the cousin and brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyeh. He was nicknamed Dhu al-Fiqar referring to the legendary sword of Ali. His death was seen as one of the biggest blows in the Hezbollah leadership.
The January 2015 Mazraat Amal incident was an airstrike against a two-car convoy that killed six Hezbollah fighters, including two prominent commanders, and a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, at al-Amal Farms in the Quneitra District of Syria, in the Eastern Golan Heights, on 18 January 2015, during the Syrian Civil War. The attack was largely attributed to Israel, which did not officially confirm that it carried it out. Hezbollah and IRGC held Israel responsible and threatened to retaliate. On 19 January 2015, Al-Nusra Front member Abu Azzam al-Idlibi claimed that Jihad Mughniyeh and the other Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Al-Nusra Front ambush at Jaroud in the Qalamoun Mountains in the Al-Qutayfah District northeast of Damascus, claiming that it "will be the end of the Persian project, God willing."
As a response to an Israeli attack against a military convoy comprising Hezbollah and Iranian officers on January 18, 2015, at Quneitra in southern Syria, the Lebanese Hezbollah group launched an ambush on January 28 against an Israeli military convoy in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, firing anti-tank missiles against two Israeli Humvees patrolling the border, destroying the two Humvees and killing 2 and wounding 7 Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli military. The number of Israeli casualties was 15 according to a report by Al Mayadeen television station. A Spanish UN peacekeeper was also killed by Israeli fire during consequent fire exchanges in the area, with Israel firing artillery and Hezbollah responding by mortar shells. The conflict ended later the same day after UNIFIL mediation.
Jihad Mughniyah was a Lebanese politician and prominent member of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, and the son of Imad Mughniyeh. He was killed in 2015 in the Mazraat Amal incident, an airstrike attributed to Israel.
Mohammad Reza Zahedi was an Iranian military officer. A senior figure within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he had previously commanded the IRGC Aerospace Force and the IRGC Ground Forces, and was commanding the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria at the time of his death.
The Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war refers to the Iranian–Israeli standoff in and around Syria during the Syrian conflict. With increasing Iranian involvement in Syria from 2011 onwards, the conflict shifted from a proxy war into a direct confrontation by early 2018.
Exchange of strikes between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have been occurring along the Israel–Lebanon border and in Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since 8 October 2023. It is currently the largest escalation of the Hezbollah–Israel conflict to have occurred since the 2006 Lebanon War, and part of the spillover of the Israel–Hamas war.
Events in the year 2024 in Lebanon.
Wissam al-Tawil, also known as Jawad al-Tawil, was a Lebanese militant and senior commander of Hezbollah's Radwan Force.
In 2024, the Iran–Israel proxy conflict escalated to a brief period of direct confrontation between the two countries. On 1 April, Israel bombed an Iranian consulate complex in Damascus, Syria, killing multiple senior Iranian officials. In response, Iran and its proxies seized the Israeli-linked ship MSC Aries and launched strikes inside Israel on 13 April. Israel then carried out retaliatory strikes in Iran and Syria on 19 April.
The Majdal Shams attack, also known as the Majdal Shams massacre, took place on 27 July 2024, when a rocket hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The resulting blast killed 12 Syrian children and young adults belonging to the Druze community and injured at least 42 others, with most of the victims being between the ages of 10 and 16.
On 30 July 2024, Israel conducted an airstrike on an apartment building in Haret Hreik in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, Iranian military adviser Milad Bedi, as well as five Lebanese civilians, including two children, and wounding 80 others.
Fuad Shukr was a Lebanese militant leader who was a senior member of Hezbollah. A member of Hezbollah's founding generation, Shukr was a senior military leader in the organization from the early 1980s. For over four decades, he was one of the group's leading military figures and was a military advisor to its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
On 25 August 2024, Israel struck targets in southern Lebanon, followed by strikes by Hezbollah.
On 20 September 2024, Israel launched an air attack that leveled an apartment building in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. The attack killed at least 38 people, including sixteen Hezbollah militants, two of whom were commanders, identified as Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wehbe. They were the second and third Hezbollah commanders assassinated by Israel in two months during the ongoing Israel–Hezbollah conflict, after the killing of Fuad Shukr.
Lebanon's health ministry says the death toll from yesterday's air attack on Beirut's southern suburb has reached 37 people.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Lebanon's Health Minister says at least 31 people, including three children and seven women, were killed in the Israeli attack on southern Beirut yesterday. Another 68 people were wounded in the attack, he added. The three children among the 31 killed in Israel's attack on southern Beirut yesterday were aged four, six and 10, Lebanon's Health Minister said during a press conference.
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