| | | Israel assassinates Hezbollah drone chief in air strike on Lebanon
Nataliya Vasilyeva
Tue, January 9, 2024 at 12:34 PM PST·4 min read
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The death of Ali Hussein Barji has been confirmed by Hezbollah - Twitter/x
The head of Hezbollah’s combat drone operations has been killed by Israeli forces in a second high-profile assassination within 24 hours.
Ali Hussein Barji, who commanded the unit in southern Lebanon, was killed on Tuesday, Hezbollah said.
It came as Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, visited Israel to discuss plans for the future of Gaza once the war ends.
Barji’s car was targeted in an air strike on the town of Khirbet Selm where he had arrived for the funeral of Wissam al-Tawil, another senior Hezbollah commander, who was killed by a suspected Israeli strike on Monday.
The apparent assassination came hours before Hezbollah drones, believed to be under the command of Barji, hit an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base in Safed, eight miles from the Lebanese border.
Firas Maksad, a senior fellow at the US-based Middle East Institute, said his reported assassination was “another notch up the escalation ladder”.
The IDF has not commented on the strike. |
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