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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Top Hezbollah commander in Syria Mustafa Badreddine killed by Israel, group says

2016-05-13

[IsraelTimes] Mustafa Badreddine, wanted by US and Special Tribunal on Leb, said assassinated in ~~Arclight~~ airstrike on Damascus airport

The pro-Hezbollah al-Mayadeen news outlet reported early Friday that top Hezbollah operative Mustafa Badreddine was killed in a purported Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike in Syria earlier in the week.

The reported attack took place near the Damascus airport on Tuesday.

Badreddine, 55, is said to have inherited the leadership of Hezbollah’s military operations from former commander and cousin Imad Mughniyeh, who is also believed to have been assassinated by Israel in 2008.

Badreddine has had a long career leading terror attacks and military operations for Hezbollah. He is being tried in absentia in The Hague for his alleged involvement in the liquidation of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

His latest role in the organization was as its chief operational commander in Syria, where the Iran-backed group has sent thousands of fighters to prop up the regime of dictator Bashir al-Assad.

According to a July 2015 US Treasury statement announcing sanctions against him, Badreddine "is assessed to be responsible for Hizballah’s military operations in Syria since 2011, including the movement of Hizballah [Hezbollah] fighters from Leb to Syria, in support of the Syrian regime. Since September 2011, strategic coordination was handled between Assad and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah on a weekly basis, with Badr Al Din [Badreddine] accompanying Nasrallah during the meetings in Damascus. Since 2012, Badr Al Din coordinated Hizballah military activities in Syria. Badr Al Din led Hizballah ground offensives in the Syrian town of al-Qusayr in February 2013, and in May 2013 the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA) confirmed that Badr Al Din was leading Hizballah’s operations in al-Qusayr."

Hezbollah confirmed Badreddine’s killing, noting in a statement that he "took part in most of the operations of the Islamic resistance since 1982."

There was no confirmation from Israel overnight of its presumed role in the killing. Israel rarely acknowledges its role in such operations, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly confirmed in recent months that Israel was actively working to disrupt Hezbollah’s arms smuggling operations in Syria and build-up of capabilities on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.

The Jerusalem Post has more on the ex-gentleman's career, including a list of his known names of convenience and a photo from happier days.

Posted by:trailing wife

#11 Too much
Lk info too early, doesn't fit IAF SOP, it was the piano Or a Sinner in the hands of a pissed dawg

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the firke. He is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hatefpkul, venomous serpent is in ours.

You have poffended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince, and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else that you did not got to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other repkason to be given why you have not gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God provoking his pure eye by your sinful, wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.

Tl;dr
Watch it assholes

Posted by: Shipman 2016-05-13 19:48

#10 Well, I don't know Bobby, but I once got out from paying a speeding ticked by convincing a NM trafic judge that I forgot that the speedometer is in miles not km.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-05-13 13:43

#9 sending the bombs some 90 kilometers (56 miles) to Damascus, where they struck Kuntar’s sixth-floor apartment

Compared to Wikipedia: Since it has a total of 12 control surfaces in 3 groups (fore, mid-body and tail), the "Spice" has a very long glide range, of about 60 kilometers.

37 miles or 56 miles. An improved version? Or were the jets over the border? Higher altitude?

More please.

Posted by: Bobby 2016-05-13 13:08

#8 A glide bomb that can glide 100 km and hit within a one meter radius of nominal? Crikey that's some glide bomb!

There's going to be a lot of twisted turbans and vamoosed curly-toed slippers as word of this gets around...

Posted by: Steve White 2016-05-13 11:28

#7 Badanov: Russia's not going to war over him. He knows that now.

TW: Oh my. If I could write like that...

Me: Yup. I wonder if we shouldn't have 'likes' in the comments just for writing like that particular turn of phrase...

Posted by: Steve White 2016-05-13 11:26

#6 Clarice Feldman:

Israelis will be blamed, but may not be responsible for the demise of the dear departed...

Posted by: badanov 2016-05-13 11:19

#5 Russia's not going to war over him. He knows that now.

Oh my. If I could write like that...

Posted by: trailing wife 2016-05-13 11:02

#4 Amazing piece of ordnance.

Posted by: badanov 2016-05-13 10:57

#3 "Knock knock"

Posted by: Frank G 2016-05-13 07:56

#2 He goes on:

The Russian air defense would have had a minutes, at most, to respond to the incoming. Badreddine would never have seen it coming. They can be salvoed, several to an F16. The Israelis could simply have saturated even the S-400s.

Which just goes to show Russia's real air defense is deterrence, not those SAMs. Badreddine is a permissible target. Russia's not going to war over him. He knows that now.

Posted by: badanov 2016-05-13 06:20

#1 Hat tip to Wretchard T Cat:

An Assad regime mouthpiece on Monday reported the details of the alleged Israeli flight path and smart bombs used in the Saturday night airstrike that killed notorious Hezbollah terrorist Samir Kuntar.

According to Syrian newspaper As-Safir, Israeli Air Force fighter jets fired their payload from within Israeli airspace, sending the bombs some 90 kilometers (56 miles) to Damascus, where they struck Kuntar’s sixth-floor apartment.

Syrian aerial defense systems identified the Israeli planes, As-Safir said, but since the planes were operating within Israeli territory, the Syrian army did not react to them.

Israel, for its part, has not taken credit for the strike, though government officials have happily acknowledged news of Kuntar’s death.

According to the Syrian report, two Israeli F-15 airplanes flew from the Hatzerim IAF base near Beersheba to the Sea of Galilee, where they fired four SPICE-2000 missiles. After the attack, Syrian search and rescue teams recovered pieces of the missiles, which were created by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the newspaper reported.

Posted by: badanov 2016-05-13 06:18

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