Death of Fuad Shukr: Biggest loss for Hezbollah since 2008 --- Reuters

BEIRUT: Fuad Shukr, the top Hezbollah commander killed by the Zionist entity on Tuesday, was a founding member of the Iran-backed group who helped oversee its expansion from a shadowy Lebanese civil war militia to a major force in the Middle East. His killing is the heaviest blow to Hezbollah’s command since the 2008 assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, underlining the gravity of this week’s escalation in the conflict, which has been rumbling across region since the Gaza war erupted. While the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran marked a major political setback to the Palestinian Islamist group and its Iran-backed allies, Shukr’s killing has stripped their camp of one of its top military leaders. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is due to speak at his funeral on Thursday. Also known as Al-Hajj Mohsin, Shukr was part of a generation of Lebanese Shiite Muslims who mobilized in 1982 to fight Zionist troops, which had invaded Lebanon that year. They were driven by ideological inspiration from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. He was a close associate of Mughniyeh, a shadowy figure remembered in Hezbollah as a legendary commander. The United States says Shukr played a central role in the bombing that killed 241 US military personnel. In 2017, it put a bounty of up to $5 million on Shukr’s head, according to the US government’s Rewards for Justice website. The Zionist entity said Shukr was responsible for the killing of numerous Zionist people and foreign nationals over the years. The Zionist entity killed Shukr, 61, in retaliation for a July 27 rocket attack that killed 12 children and teenagers in a Druze village in the Zionist-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with the Zionist entity since Oct 8, denied any role in the attack. In 1982, Shukr helped to plan a suicide car bomb attack on Zionist troops at their barracks in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, along with Mughniyeh and others, according to details of his life published by the pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar newspaper. Photos of Shukr published by the paper on Thursday showed him in fatigues standing between Mughniyeh and Mustafa Badreddine, another Hezbollah veteran commander who was killed in Syria in 2016. Al-Akhbar also published a photo of Shukr alongside Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. As a top Hezbollah commander from 1985 until the mid-nineties, Shukr oversaw the evolution of Hezbollah attacks from suicide bombings to operations that included storming Zionist positions, whilst building Hezbollah’s arsenal with the addition of weapons such as anti-tank missiles, Al-Akhbar reported. He assumed many of Mughniyeh’s responsibilities after his assassination, sources familiar with his role said. His roles included acting as military adviser to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. – Reuters

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UP Diliman Professors Share Scientists’ Procurement Struggles at Senate Hearing

By Harvey Sapigao Senate hearing of the revised procurement law (Photo credit: Senate of the Philippines) College of Science (CS) Dean Giovanni Tapang held up a little white device as he finished his presentation. “This is a ₱150,000 component,” he described. “Isa lang gumagawa nito sa buong mundo, pero ang hirap pilitin sila na magregister sa PhilGEPS,” he continued, referring to the requirement that foreign companies must first register to the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) before they can sell products to local scientists. Marine Science Institute (MSI) Deputy Director Dr. Irene Rodriguez explained that the small device is a resin that filters metals in water. “May budget tayo,” she said, “pero ang problema ko ay ‘yung resin na ito.” This and other bottlenecks brought about by the procurement law, or the Government Procurement Reform Act (RA 9184), slow down research and development in the country. UPD leaders were invited to the Senate he
Read more

How war is putting Middle East aviation at risk ---AL JAZEERA

The human suffering in Gaza is accompanied by losses that are undermining this vital industry With more than 40 years' experience in aviation, including a stint as chief executive Bahrain's Gulf Air and sitting on the International Air Transport Association's Board of Governors, Royal Jordanian’s CEO Samer Majali is someone who knows the industry in the Middle East – and its challenges – like few others. In an exclusive interview with The National yesterday, he spoke for many executives when he described how six months of violence in Israel and Palestine had hurt his airline and the region’s economy. While the human cost is, of course, the biggest, and Palestinian society is bearing the brunt of this war, its consequences are far reaching. The plummeting bookings, operational difficulties and financial losses being experienced by the aviation sector are being exacerbated by a widespread perception that the Middle East is in turmoil. “They lump the region as a homogeneous
Read more

Azerbaijan looks to enhance ties with Kuwait --- By Faten Omar

KUWAIT: Azerbaijani Ambassador to Kuwait Emil Karimov stated that the strong and historical ties between Kuwait and Azerbaijan pave the way for further strengthening bilateral relations across various sectors. During an iftar held by the embassy for local media, the ambassador said “With a focus on tourism, food, and education, both countries are poised to enhance collaboration and mutual exchange of expertise.” He noted that 30,000 Kuwaiti tourists visited Azerbaijan during the past year. Regarding the trade between the two countries, the ambassador said that the volume of trade exchange for the year 2023 reached $665,000 and Azerbaijan is keen to increase trade exchange with Kuwait. He said the Kuwaiti side has expressed an interest in importing food products from Azerbaijan, signaling a desire to diversify its sources of agricultural goods and strengthen economic ties to enhance trade relations. To deepen cultural understanding and foster people-to-people connections between the t
Read more