The Israeli army confirmed this Tuesday the death of another key Hezbollah figure, Hashim Sadi al Din, who was considered the new leader of the Shiite militia after the death of cleric Hassan Nasrallah at the end of September. Al Din was “eliminated” three weeks ago by the Israel Defense Forces during an attack on Hezbollah’s Intelligence headquarters in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut.
Along with Safi al-Din, another important figure within the Shiite party-militia also died, Ali Hussein Hazima, commander of the Intelligence Headquarters. In this way, analysts knowledgeable about Hezbollah they consider that only three senior officials remain alive. They are Talal Hamiyah, Abu Ali Rida and Naim Qassem.
Talal Hamiyah
Also known as Ismat Mezarani, he was born in Brital, in the province of Baalbek-Hermel, near the Bekka Valley. Talal Hamiyah is the head of the Foreign Security Organization (ESO) the section of the party-militia responsible for the planning, coordination and execution of terrorist attacks outside Lebanon.
Hamiyah has been Hezbollah’s top military commander since its founding in the early 1980s. He was for years the Imad Mughniyeh’s lieutenantalso known by his nom de guerre al-Hayy Radwan, who became Hezbollah’s chief of staff until his death in 2008.
At that moment, it was Hamiyah who replaced him. Thus, he joined the Jihad Council and assumed direction of Hezbollah’s foreign operations. His photo was first made public in 2016.
The United States has designated Hamiyah as global terrorist of particular importance since 2012for providing support to the activities of Hezbollah, which it considers terrorists. In 2017, it added it to its rewards program.
The ESO attacks have been directed mainly against Israelis and Americans. Hamiyah is associated with attacks such as the AMIA, in Argentina, in 1994 (85 people died), and the Khobar Towers in 1996 (which killed 19 American soldiers).
Abu Ali Rida
Hezbollah’s military front in southern Lebanon is divided into three units according to their radius of action: Nasr (between the Blue Line and the Litani River); Aziz (eastern sector, including the Shebaa farms, up to the Beqaa Valley) and Badr (second line of defense, between the Litani River and Sidon).
Each was directed by a commander, of whom Abu Ali Rida, head of the Badr unitis the only one still alive. The other two, Taleb Sami Abdullah (Nasr) and Muhammad Nasser (Aziz) were killed this summer in separate Israeli attacks. In September, the party-militia denied Israel, which even said it had killed Rida.
He would be third in Hezbollah’s line of command. But There is not a single photo that shows us what it looks like. of Abu Ali Rida, which has led to all kinds of speculation about his identity. It has been said that if he has survived it is because he is actually an agent of the Israeli Mossad.
Naim Qassem
The 71-year-old Shiite cleric is the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah. Qassem acts as number 2 of the organization and spokesperson before the media. Apparently he now lives in Tehranafter leaving Beirut on October 5 on the plane of Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister.
He was born in Kfar Fila in 1953. He studied Theology and graduated in Chemistry from the Lebanese University. After passing through the Lebanese Muslim students’ union, Qassem was the head of the Islamic religious education association from 1974 to 1988. Then participated in the founding of Hezbollah and in 1991, he became deputy secretary general.
He usually makes anti-Israel proclamations in his speeches. It is also Author of numerous books on politics and religionamong them Hezbollah: the story from within (2006), which tells the history of the movement and its ideology.
When the eighth edition of the book was launched in 2011, Qassem made the following statement: “We have been offered billions of dollars to rebuild southern Lebanon, which is bereft of everything, and in exchange to hand over our weapons and stop the work of the resistance. But we have told them that we do not need (their money) and that “The resistance will continue regardless of the consequences.”.
