Hezbollah superior killed in Syria

Top commander directed group’s support of Assad

BEIRUT • Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group on Friday mourned its top military commander, Mustafa Badreddine, who was killed in an explosion in the Syrian capital that dealt a major blow to the Shiite group, which has provided crucial support to Syrian government forces.

Badreddine, 55, had been the mastermind of the group’s involvement in Syria’s civil war since Hezbollah fighters joined the battle on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad against those trying to remove him from power, according to pro-Hezbollah media. Hezbollah, along with Iran, has been one of Assad’s strongest backers.

But there was little information as to how he was killed. Hezbollah said the attack occurred near the Damascus airport without giving details. The airport is close to the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab, where the group has wide presence and several military positions.

Hezbollah said several others were wounded in the blast and that it was investigating the nature of the explosion — whether it was the result of an air raid, missile attack or artillery shelling.

It didn’t say when the explosion happened, and Hezbollah’s media office said they also had no information about the timing of the attack. On Tuesday night, Hezbollah denied reports that Israel’s air force targeted a Hezbollah convoy on the Lebanon-Syria border.

The Beirut-based AlMayadeen TV, which is close to the Lebanese Shiite group, earlier said Badreddine was killed in an Israeli airstrike but later removed the report.

Badreddine was one of four people being tried in absentia for the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. The 2005 suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others was one of the Middle East’s most dramatic political assassinations. The trial is ongoing near The Hague, Netherlands. A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon’s most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Hezbollah denies involvement in Hariri’s assassination and says the charges are politically motivated.

Badreddine’s death is the biggest blow to the militant group since the 2008 assassination of his predecessor, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a bomb attack in Damascus. After that, Badreddine, known among the group’s ranks as Zulfiqar, became Hezbollah’s top military commander and adviser to the group’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.