The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on September 26 that the commander of Hezbollah air forces was killed in a strike that targeted the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, which is also known as Dahieh.
In a statement, the IDF said that the commander, Muhammad Hussein Srur, directed and commanded numerous various aerial attacks on Israel, including suicide drones and cruise missiles.
In recent years, Srur led Hezbollah’s drone manufacturing, and established sites in Lebanon where the group would build suicide, some of which were under civilian buildings in Beirut, the military added.
Srur joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, and held various positions, including in the group’s air defenses, in the Aziz unit in the Radwan Force, and Hezbollah’s attaché to Yemen where he was involved in the aerial forces of the Houthis (Ansar Allah), according to the IDF statement.
“During the war he advanced numerous explosive drone attacks on Israel, as well as surveillance drones,” the IDF said.
Two security sources told the Reuters news agency that Srur was indeed killed in the Israeli strike on Dahieh. However, they described him as the commander of one of Hezbollah’ several air force units. The Lebanese group is yet to officially confirm his death, however.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said that the Israeli strike on Dahieh claimed the lives of two people and left more than 15 others wounded.
This was the third time the IDF had targeted a senior commander of Hezbollah in Dahieh, a stronghold of the group, in less than a week.
On September 20, an Israeli strike killed Hezbollah top military leader Ibrahim Aqil along with Ahmed Wehbe, who commanded the group’s central training unit, and around ten other commanders of the elite Rudwan Force. Later on September 24, Ibrahim Kubisi, the commander of Hezbollah missile forces, was killed in another strike.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant approved “the continued IDF offensive activity” against Hezbollah in Lebanon” prior to the latest strike on Dahieh, according to a statement released by the minister’s office.
Gallant met with IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, head of the Operations Directorate Major General Oded Basiuk, and head of the Intelligence Directorate, Major General Shlomi Binder to approve the plans. The four also observed the strike on Srur.
Following the strike, Halevi said that the IDF must continue to strike Hezbollah, its commanders and weapons across Lebanon.
“We need to continue attacking Hezbollah, we have been waiting for this opportunity for years,” Halevi said following an assessment, in remarks provided by the IDF.
“We are constantly working to achieve achievements, to eliminate more senior officials, to thwart the transfer of weapons, to [destroy] Hezbollah’s firepower capabilities, and to attack it in all of Lebanon,” he added.
The confrontation between Israel and Lebanon broke out after the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip last October, with Hezbollah and its allies launching near-daily attacks against the IDF in support of the Hamas Movement and other armed factions in the Palestinian enclave.
The IDF escalated its strikes against Lebanon earlier this week to a level not seen since the war of 2006. So far, the aerial campaign has claimed the lives of nearly 700 people, including dozens of women and children. Many of the victims were Syrian nationals.
In response, Hezbollah expanded its attacks deep into northern Israel, relying mainly on heavy artillery rockets and suicide drones.
All in all, the confrontation has so far resulted in 26 civilian deaths in Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as well as the deaths of at least 22 soldiers and security officers. On the Lebanese side, nearly 1,900 people have been killed, including more than 500 members of Hezbollah.
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