BEIRUT (AP) — Hashem Safieddine, a strongman who rose via the ranks of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah over a long time to develop into the second-most highly effective individual inside the group, has died.
Safieddine, who was about 60, was killed in early October in a sequence of Israeli airstrikes in a southern suburb of Beirut that shook a lot of the Lebanese capital, a part of Israel’s marketing campaign towards Hezbollah. Israel stated Tuesday that Safieddine had been killed within the strikes; Hezbollah confirmed the loss of life Wednesday.
Safieddine’s loss of life got here as he was broadly anticipated to be elected the group’s subsequent chief after the death of Hassan Nasrallah, considered one of its founders.
Safieddine, Nasrallah’s maternal cousin, had spent years getting ready for the place — however the announcement was gradual in coming following the Sept. 27 airstrike within the Beirut suburbs that killed Nasrallah, a part of a series of blows dealt by Israel that had left Hezbollah in disarray.
A black-turbaned cleric with a thick grey beard who bore a robust resemblance to Nasrallah, Safieddine was recognized for defiant speeches through which he vowed that Hezbollah would maintain preventing Israel irrespective of the value.
A well-recognized face in Lebanon and a frontrunner with shut ties to Iran, he was a member of the group’s decision-making Shura Council and its Jihad Council, which acts as its navy command. He additionally headed its Govt Council, which runs faculties and social applications.
Safieddine’s loss of life comes at a fragile time for Hezbollah. Within the wake of its ally Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing offensive in Gaza, Hezbollah started firing rockets, drones and missiles at Israel — they usually have exchanged fireplace recurrently since.
However latest weeks have seen a big escalation, as Israel carried out a sequence of strikes on prime Hezbollah commanders and apparently blew up thousands of communication devices utilized by the group’s members. It has since launched a ground invasion in Lebanon that it says goals to push Hezbollah militants again from the border.
Regardless of the shortage of formal announcement following Nasrallah’s loss of life, it was broadly recognized that Safieddine was already in management and working the group’s affairs, although the official performing chief was his deputy, Naim Kassem.
It’s not clear who will find yourself taking Hezbollah’s prime job now, particularly since one other main candidate, Nabil Kaouk, was additionally killed in an Israeli strike hours after Nasrallah’s loss of life.
Like Nasrallah, Safieddine held the title of sayyid, an honorific meant to indicate the Shiite cleric’s lineage courting again to the Prophet Muhammad, the founding father of Islam. Since its founding throughout Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah has been led by a cleric.
Throughout a funeral in a Beirut suburb final month for Hezbollah members who had been killed within the exploding pagers assault, Safieddine vowed that Hezbollah wouldn’t bow down and would combat again.
“This aggression will certainly face its particular punishment. This punishment is unquestionably coming,” Safieddine stated.
Through the ceremony, a number of walkie-talkies exploded wounding folks close by. Safieddine stayed on the funeral till the tip, regardless of the brand new spherical of blasts.
Safieddine was near Iran. His son, Rida, is married to Zeinab Soleimani, the daughter of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Power, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in 2020.
Safieddine’s brother, Abdallah, is Hezbollah’s level man in Tehran, a vital position within the group provided that Iran is its fundamental backer, offering it with weapons and cash.
In Could 2017, the U.S. and a few of its Arab allies, together with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, imposed sanctions on 10 prime Hezbollah officers together with Nasrallah, Kassem and Safieddine.
