Potential Hezbollah Leader Hashem Safieddine Lost Contact after Israeli Bombing

Hizbullah.(Al Jazeera)

PROSPECTIVE successor to murdered Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has lost contact since Friday (4/10). This was said by a Lebanese security source on Saturday (5/10). It came after Israeli airstrikes reportedly targeted it.

In its campaign against the Iran-backed Lebanese group, Israel carried out a major attack in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday (3/10) evening that Axios said targeted Hashem Safieddine in an underground bunker.

The Lebanese security source and two other Lebanese security sources said that the ongoing Israeli offensive in the southern suburb of Beirut – known as Dahiyeh – since Friday had made it impossible for rescue workers to comb the site of the attack.

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Hezbollah has not commented so far on Safieddine since the attack.

Israeli Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Friday that the military was still assessing Thursday night’s airstrike. He said they targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.

The loss of Nasrallah’s rumored successor would be another blow to Hezbollah and its patron, Iran. Israeli attacks across the region last year, which have increased sharply in recent weeks, have decimated Hezbollah’s leadership.

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Israel expanded its conflict in Lebanon on Saturday with its first attack on the northern city of Tripoli, a Lebanese security official said, after more bombs hit Beirut’s suburbs and Israeli forces launched an offensive in the south.

Israel has launched nightly bombings in Dahiyeh. Dahiyeh used to be a densely populated area in Beirut and became a stronghold for Hezbollah.

On Saturday, smoke billowed over Dahiyeh. Much of it has been turned into rubble, causing residents to flee to other parts of Beirut or Lebanon. (New York Post/Z-2)