Hizbullah Commander, STL Suspect Mustafa Badreddine Assassinated in Syria

Hizbullah announced on Friday the death of its prominent commander Mustafa Badreddine in an attack in the Syrian capital Damascus.

The party did not disclose the nature of the blast that killed Badreddine, speculating that it could have been on the ground or that it may have been an airstrike.

The party said in a statement: "Information received during a preliminary investigation shows that a large explosion targeting one of our posts near Damascus international airport killed Mustafa Badreddine and injured others.”

“After a life rife with jihad, wounds, and major achievements, Zou al-Fiqar's life ended in martyrdom,” it added.

Hizbullah said that Badreddine was in Syria where he was “waging jihad against takfiri groups.”

The party's statement quoted Badreddine as saying in Syria a few months ago: "I will only return from Syria as a martyr or carrying the banner of victory."

Hizbullah said it will reveal more details on his death at a later stage. His funeral was held on Friday afternoon.

A huge crowd thronged the streets as Badreddine's coffin draped in Hizbullah's yellow flag was carried by uniformed young men.

Mourners carried portraits of Badreddine, or threw handfuls of rice and flowers to celebrate his death as a "martyr."

The party didn't say when the explosion happened, and Hizbullah's media office said they also had no information about the timing of the attack. On Tuesday night, Hizbullah denied reports that Israel's air force targeted a Hizbullah arms convoy on the Lebanon-Syria border.

The Beirut-based al-Mayadeen TV, which is close to Hizbullah, earlier said Badreddine was killed in an Israeli airstrike but later removed the report.

Israel made no comment, but Israeli media underlined Hizbullah's failure to point the finger.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sent condolences to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, saying Badreddine's death "will further strengthen the determination of the forces of resistance against the Zionist regime and terrorism."

Prominent Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh -- Badreddine's cousin and brother-in-law -- was also killed in a bombing in Damascus in 2008 in an attack that the party blamed on Israel.

"The message is that a martyred commander has joined the convoy of martyred leaders," Hizbullah cabinet minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan told The Associated Press on Friday. "He boosts us with his martyrdom with strength, glory, will and intention to continue the fight against the Zionist enemy and the takfiris until victory is achieved, God willing."

The slain commander is also one of five Hizbullah suspects wanted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Badreddine had been living Syria. Known as “Zou al-Fiqar,” he was a member of Hizbullah's Shura council and an aide to party chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The STL indicted Hizbullah members Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra with Hariri's murder. A fifth suspect, Hassan Habib Merhi, was later charged.

Lebanese authorities had failed to arrest any of them and they were all being tried in absentia.

Hizbullah had vowed not to cooperate with the international court, deeming it an American-Israeli product aimed at destroying the group.

In 2012 the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Badreddine along with a number of others in Hizbullah's leadership, for the movement's "active support to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, as well as its role in terrorist activities."

Badreddine, 55, had been the mastermind of the group's involvement in Syria's civil war since Hizbullah fighters joined the battle on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces against those trying to remove him from power, according to pro-Hizbullah media. Hizbullah, along with Iran, has been one of Assad's strongest backers.

One of the group's most shadowy figures, Badreddine was also known by aliases Elias Saab and Sami Issa. He was only known to the public by a decades-old black-and-white photograph of a smiling young man wearing a suit until Hizbullah released a new image of him in military uniform.

Badreddine was also known for his expertise in explosives, apparently developing what would become his trademark explosive technique by adding gas to increase the power of sophisticated explosives.

Top Hizbullah officials, including the group's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, attended a mourning ceremony at a hall in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, where Badreddine's family members were receiving condolences.

In an emotional gesture of grief, Badreddine's brother Adnan raised his hand to touch a giant poster of the killed Hizbullah operative. Badreddine's only son, Ali, wept, as top Hizbullah official Hashim Safieddine hugged to comfort him.

Badreddine was suspected of involvement in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait that killed five people. He was detained in Kuwait where he was sentenced to death and imprisoned for years until he fled jail in 1990 after Iraq's Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait.

M.T./Y.R.