IDF eliminates top Hezbollah terrorist

Ali Ahmed Hussein, a brigade commander in the elite Radwan Force, was killed by an airstrike on a house in southern Lebanon.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The IDF confirmed Monday that its forces eliminated a top Hezbollah commander in an airstrike in southern Lebanon Sunday night.

Ali Ahmed Hussein, who held the equivalent rank of a brigade commander in the terror organization’s elite Radwan Force, was killed when Israeli jets hit a house in the town of Al Sultana in the Bint Jbeil area.

The Radwan Force is a special operations unit geared towards cross-border attacks on Israel. It gained valuable battlefield experience fighting in Syria for President Bashar Assad during the Syrian civil war and is considered a dangerous combat contingent.

Two other terrorists in his command were also killed in the attack, which according to Lebanese media caused a great deal of destruction in the area.

Hussein was responsible for the planning and execution of many rocket attacks against Israel since the Jewish state declared war on Hamas six months ago in response to its surprise invasion and massacre of 1,200 people in Gazan envelope communities.

Hezbollah has launched over 3,000 rockets at Israel’s north and has attempted many cross-border infiltrations since the war began, in order to support its fellow Iran-backed member of the so-called “axis of resistance” against Israel.

Hussein is the third terrorist of his rank who has been assassinated in Lebanon, and the second one in ten days. Ali Abed Akhsan Naim, deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit, was killed by the IAF on March 29.

Two even more senior men were killed in January.

Although Israel did not take official responsibility for his death, the acting head of the Radwan Force, Wissam al-Tawil, was reportedly killed by an IDF drone while traveling in his car near his home in southern Lebanon.

Israel did acknowledge its role in assassinating the southern region commander of the organization’s air unit, Ali Hassan Borgi. Borgi had “led dozens of operations using unmanned aircraft against Israel,” said IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in his announcement at the time.

Israel has killed some 330 Hezbollah operatives so far in the war, mostly in retaliation for rocket or anti-tank fire at northern communities. These launches have killed 14 IDF soldiers and eight civilians to date.

Due to the danger, the government evacuated tens of thousands of residents from their homes, and most are still living in limbo in hotels and guesthouses.

This is unanimously considered an untenable situation, and Israel has warned often that if the Hezbollah attacks are not stopped by diplomatic efforts it will use military means instead.

Even while prosecuting the war in Gaza, the IDF stepped up training in the northern command, inculcating lessons learned from the months of fighting in the south.

Over recent days, the army’s logistics arm has completed stocking and readying its warehouses with all the military equipment that a large and wide-ranging reservist force would need if called for emergency combat.

According to the IDF, the commanders of both regular and reserve units are prepared to summon and equip all the required fighters in just a few hours, and to transport them to the front lines for defensive as well as offensive missions.

AssassinationHezbollahIDF airstrikeRadwanterrorists