BEIRUT: The drums of war thundered Sunday as Lebanon and the region awaited Hezbollah’s retaliation to an Israeli helicopter strike on Syria’s Golan Heights that killed the son of slain Hezbollah top commander Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Iranian commander and five other fighters.
Reprisal was seen as inevitable in light of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s remarks last week that his party’s military capabilities were growing and it had the right to respond to any Israeli attacks.
Jihad Mughniyeh, 25, field commander Mohammad Issa, 42, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Issa, and four other Hezbollah fighters were killed in the attack.
A senior Iranian field commander Abu Ali Tabtabai was also killed in the strike, a Lebanese security source told The Daily Star.
The strike entirely destroyed one Hezbollah vehicle and damaged another, the source added.
“Think not of those killed in the way of Allah dead, but alive and well with the Lord,” a Hezbollah statement read. “In all faith and pride the Islamic resistance in Lebanon announces to its loyal people the names of the honorable martyrs.”
In addition to Mughniyeh and Issa, Hezbollah mourned Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi, 35, Mohammad Ali Hasan Abu al-Hasan, 29, Ghazi Ali Dawi, 26 and Ali Hasan Ibrahim, 21.
Hezbollah confirmed the strike in an earlier statement, saying “a number of mujahedeen were martyred,” during “an inspection mission” in the Syrian town of Qunaitra.
According to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, although a date for the funerals has yet to be set, the party’s members will be buried in the Rawdat al-Shahidayn cemetery in Beirut’s southern suburbs or at their respective villages in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was on the United States’ most-wanted list for the attacks on Israeli and Western targets and was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008, is buried in Rawdat al-Shahidayn.
Believed to be the mastermind of Hezbollah’s combat tactics, Mughniyeh was considered to be involved in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks in Beirut, which killed over 350 people, as well as the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s.
An Israeli helicopter carried out a strike against “terrorists” in the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights who were allegedly preparing an attack on Israel, an Israeli security source told AFP earlier.
The source said the strike took place near Qunaitra, close to the cease-fire line separating the Syrian part of the Golan Heights from the Israeli-occupied sector, confirming an early report by Al-Manar.
Israeli media said the men who were killed had been plotting to attack or capture towns in northern Israel. Nasrallah revealed that an attack on Galilee in northern Israel and the conquering of villages there was possible in the event of a new war.The report had said that an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles in the Syrian province of Qunaitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in an area called the Amal Farms.
The Israeli military declined comment on the attack.
In the introduction to its evening news bulletin, Al-Manar described the Israeli strike as a “foolish venture” which reflects “Israel’s madness” in light of Hezbollah’s growing capabilities and it could lead to “a costly adventure that puts the entire Middle East region in jeopardy.”
Qunaitra has seen heavy fighting between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels, including Al-Qaeda-linked fighters.
Israel has struck Syria several times since the start of the nearly 4-year-old civil war, mostly destroying weaponry such as missiles that Israeli officials said were destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syria said last month that Israeli jets had bombed areas near Damascus international airport and in the town of Dimas, near the border with Lebanon.
In his interview last week with Al-Mayadeen satellite news channel Nasrallah said “the frequent attacks on different sites in Syria is a major breach. We consider that those hostilities target the resistance axis.”
“[Retaliation] is an open issue ... it could happen any time,” he added.
The Hamas Movement condemned the Israeli “offensive” that targeted a Hezbollah convoy and called for powerful retaliation.
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