Hizballah high-up taken out in Syria
Arab media reports that on the early morning of Friday May 13th, Hezbbolah’s chief commander in Lebanon Mustafa Bader Al-din was killed. Al-din is a relative of Hezbbolah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. Arab media attribute the action to Israeli forces since it was carried out by an airstrike near Damascus’s military airport. Israeli sources refused to confirm or deny any connection to the killing.
Debka’s exclusive military and anti-terror sources note that while it is indeed possible that Israel is behind the attack, it is also known that Al-din had numerous rivals among Iranian and Syrian top leaders. Lately, Al-Din and Nasrallah were known to be in dispute over Al-din’s wish to withdraw large parts of Hizballah’s forces from Syria back to Lebanon and his refusal to take part in several crucial battles in the Syrian war. Al-din claimed that President Assad as well as the Iranian leadership were assigning Hizballah forces excessively demanding operative tasks. Furthermore, Al-din claimed that Hizballah finds it hard to cope with the high volume of losses and casualties in the Syrian war.
Debka’s exclusive sources further report that earlier this week Al-din met with the commander of the Iranian forces in Syria General Qassem Soleimani near Aleppo in northern Syria. The two clashed over the way in which the war in Syria should be conducted. Al-din claimed the Iran has been a victim of a Russian disinformation scheme under which Moscow is no longer providing aerial backup in Syria. Following what he called “Russia’s pulling out from the war”, A-din demanded not only not to expand Iran and Hezbollah’s attacks in Syria but to narrow them down significantly. Moreover, A-din announced, seemingly without consulting Nassrallah, that he had begun to withdraw Hezbollah forces from the various fronts in Syria and concentrated them near the Syrian-Lebanese border.
All of these appear to be a good enough reason for many parties in Teheran, Damascus and Beirut to get rid of Al-din. That said, all along Al-din never stopped planning attacks on Israeli targets.