Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, the Lebanese pro-Iranian Shia Islamist political group, addresses the crowd on a big screen during a mass rally in 2022. (Photo by Marwan Naamani/picture alliance via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The Lebanese group Hezbollah today confirmed that longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike, a momentous development for the region and a significant escalation in Israel’s conflict with Iran-backed groups there.
Hezbollah said that Nasrallah, who has led the group since 1992, “has joined his great and immortal comrades.”
The Israel Defense Forces posted online today, “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.” It also posted a Hezbollah organizational chart with “Eliminated” banners over more than a dozen senior members, including Nasrallah, adding, “We searched up ‘dismantled’ on the internet, this is the picture that came up.”
Israel said other senior members of the organization were killed in the same strike Friday that took Nasrallah’s life, and today Iran said one of its key generals was also killed.
It’s unclear what effect Nasrallah’s death with have on an already incredibly volatile situation. Hezbollah vowed to continue the fight, but with so many senior leaders taken out, it’s unclear what capacity the group has to do so.
Another open question is how Iran might respond. Analysts previously told Breaking Defense that Tehran appeared to be willing to let Hezbollah face Israel alone as it wasn’t in their strategic interest to get involved — but, they warned, that calculus only works if Hezbollah is not on the verge of complete destruction, at which point Iran could feel compelled to step in.
In a statement in Iranian press today, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei condemned the Israeli strike but did not mention Nasrallah by name. Instead he said that all the “resistance” forces in the region are “with Hezbollah and support it.”
Today Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed American “complicity” in Nasrallah’s killing. On Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US “was not involved” and “had no advance warning” of the Israeli operation; in fact it was “already underway” when Austin spoke on the phone with his Israeli counterpart that day.
In a statement this afternoon, President Joe Biden announced he has ordered Austin to “further enhance” America’s “defense posture” in the region, and he did not mince words about Nasrallah’s demise.
“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” he said.
Follow Breaking Defense’s full coverage of the region:
- ‘The King doesn’t lie down to save the paywn’: Why Iran may let Hezbollah face Israel alone
- After failure of Oct. 7, with Hezbollah Israel gets the war it trained for
- For Lebanon, a war in all but name has finally arrived: Experts
- OP ED: How Israel degraded Hezbollah for years to come, in 8 days
- Exploding pagers, major strike: Israel turns its war aims north in ‘new phase’
- US special ops official lays out ‘strategic’ reason for Israel to better protect civilians
- In Northern Israel, empty villages and talk of war in Lebanon
- In Sourthern Lebanon, empty villages, ruined crops and fears of what comes next
UPDATED 12:48pm ET to include a statement from President Joe Biden.
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