Hezbollah launches barrage of rockets at Israel after top commander killed
Al Jazeera
Muhammad Nimah Nasser is at least the third senior commander killed in cross-border fighting since October.
Hezbollah says a top commander has been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, at least the third high-ranking official in the group to be killed in almost nine months of cross-border fighting that has sparked fears of wider regional escalation.
The Lebanese armed group on Wednesday said that Muhammad Nimah Nasser, also known as “Hajj Abu Naameh”, had been killed. The Iran-aligned group later said it had launched 100 katyusha rockets targeting Israeli military positions.
The announcement of Nasser’s death on the group’s Telegram did not provide the location, but a source previously told Al Jazeera that a commander had been killed in the Hosh area in Tyre in southern Lebanon. A source close to the group confirmed to the AFP news agency that Nasser had been killed in the Tyre attack.
The source said that Nasser had the same rank as Taleb Abdallah, another top commander who was killed by an Israeli attack in June. At the time, Abdallah was the highest-ranking Hezbollah military official killed since the group began fighting Israel on October 8 in response to bombardment of Gaza. Following Abdallah’s killing, Hezbollah launched one of its largest rocket barrages on northern Israel.
The Israeli military confirmed it targeted Nasser, and said he was a “counterpart” of Abdallah and in charge of Hezbollah’s “antitank and rocket fire from southwest Lebanon”.
