Announced dead by Israel, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was the most powerful man in Lebanon. A sworn enemy of Israel, he has rarely appeared in public since the war between his movement and the Israeli army in the summer of 2006 and his place of residence was kept secret.
Hassan Nasrallah had been at the head of Hezbollah since 1992, when he succeeded Abbas Moussaoui, who was assassinated by Israel. This 64-year-old man of religion was the subject of a veritable cult of personality among his followers, particularly within the Shiite Muslim community from which he came.
Under his reign, Hezbollah, armed and financed by Iran, became an essential political force in Lebanon, represented in Parliament and in the government. At the same time, he developed the arsenal of his formation, which according to him has 100,000 fighters, and has powerful weapons.
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Born on August 31, 1960 into a modest family of nine children in the suburbs of Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah studied theology in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, Iraq, before returning to Lebanon following the wave of anti-Shiite repression of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
He then became involved in the Shiite Amal movement, but seceded during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 1982 to become part of the founding core of Hezbollah, created under the leadership of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Married with five children, Hassan Nasrallah speaks Farsi fluently. He wears the black turban of the Sayyed, the descendants of the prophet Mohammed to whom he claims. In a rare interview, he told how he played football in his youth and still loves Maradona.
