Ibrahim Aqil, killed in an Israeli strike on the Beirut suburbs on Friday, commanded the Al-Radwan force, Hezbollah’s elite unit, and was wanted by Washington for his involvement in the bloody anti-American attacks in Beirut in 1983.
Second top Hezbollah military official killed by Israel. This Friday, Israel confirmed that it had killed Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s number 2, and a “dozen commanders” of the terrorist movement. Members of the pro-Iranian armed organization were meeting in the basement of a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut in Lebanon. The targeted strike left 12 dead and 66 injured, according to the latest report from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Like most of the leaders of the powerful Lebanese formation, Ibrahim Aqil used multiple pseudonyms, including Hajj Abdel Qader, and his name was unknown to the general public. His assassination is a snub for the pro-Iranian group, which is the second very high-ranking military official killed by Israel since the Islamist movement opened the front in southern Lebanon nearly a year ago, to support the Palestinian Hamas in its war against Israel in Gaza.
An elite unit with experienced fighters
According to sources close to Hezbollah, Ibrahim Aqil was the military number two of the powerful formation. The military number one, Fouad Chokr, was killed in a similar strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, on July 30. In addition to Chokr and Aqil, two Hezbollah military leaders who commanded two of the three sectors of the front in southern Lebanon were killed: Mohammed Nasser and Taleb Abdallah. In January, a commander of the elite Al-Radwan unit, Wissam Tawil, was killed when his vehicle was targeted in southern Lebanon.
The Al-Radwan force is considered the spearhead of Hezbollah in its fight against Israel. Israel is demanding its withdrawal from the border areas of southern Lebanon, a demand transmitted by international mediators to Lebanon. This elite unit brings together experienced fighters, some of whom have fought in Syria or in other countries in the region. Since the beginning of the violence in southern Lebanon, they have been on the front lines. Its fighters are trained in assaults, including infiltrations on the borders. The Israeli army accuses the Al-Radwan force of having drawn up plans to attack the Galilee (north) in the event of a large-scale war.
Wanted by Washington
Like Fouad Chokr, Aqil was designated a terrorist by the US Treasury Department in 2015 and by the State Department in 2019. The US Treasury had offered seven million dollars for any information about him for his role in the attacks against the US embassy in Beirut in April 1983 (63 dead) and against the US Marines in October 1983 (241 soldiers killed). These attacks were claimed by Islamic Jihad, a nebula linked according to Washington to Hezbollah.
According to the US Treasury, it also “directed” Western hostage-taking in Lebanon in the 1980s. He also fought in neighboring Syria, where Hezbollah has supported the regime of Bashar al-Assad since 2013, which faced a popular uprising in 2011 that degenerated into civil war.
