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NEW: Did Israel Hit Nasrallah's Successor?
Hotair ^ | 10/04/2024 | Ed Morrissey

Posted on 10/04/2024 7:52:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

An even better question: Why are Hezbollah leaders still meeting in Beirut?

The Israelis launched another massive attack on a building complex "on the outskirts of Beirut," the New York Times reports this morning. This apparently refers to Dahiyeh, the suburb controlled by Hamas Hezbollah [corrected], and where Israelis killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a few days ago. Reportedly, Nasrallah's presumed successor had gathered with what's left of Hezbollah's command, and ... well ...

Israel bombed a meeting of Hezbollah’s senior leadership around midnight on Thursday, a gathering that included Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor of Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s longtime chief who was assassinated in an airstrike in Lebanon last week, according to three Israeli officials.

The three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said Israel had struck an underground bunker belonging to Hezbollah near Beirut, the Lebanese capital. ...

Mr. Safieddine, Mr. Nasrallah’s cousin, is in his 50s and has long been a major player in Hezbollah and has been considered a contender to become the group’s new secretary general. Israeli officials previously told The New York Times that Mr. Safieddine was one of the few senior Hezbollah leaders not present at the site of Israel’s heavy bombardment last Friday near Beirut that killed Mr. Nasrallah.

It was not immediately clear if Mr. Safieddine was present in the bunker struck overnight Friday.

Videos and pictures on Twitter/X show multiple explosions from a distance. Israel had even issued a warning for this specific neighborhood, hoping to clear out civilians before the strike, according to this NYT report. No one knows yet whether Safieddine (sometimes rendered as Safi al-Din) got killed in the blast yet, but it's been a few hours and no one's heard from him yet.

The Israelis are handling this story with caution. For now, the IDF calls this an attack on Hezbollah's intel headquarters:

The IDF said Friday morning that the airstrike in Beirut targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters. The military did not disclose who was at the underground bunker.

There was no immediate reaction from Hezbollah.

The IDF did claim to have confirmed the death of another high-ranking Hezbollah commander in the strike:

🔴Mohammad Rashid Sakafi, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Communications Unit, during a precise, intelligence-based strike in Beirut yesterday.

Sakafi was a senior Hezbollah terrorist, who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000. Sakafi invested significant efforts to develop communication capabilities between all of Hezbollah's units.

pic.twitter.com/PH65nh5FLI— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 4, 2024

Sakafi was a senior Hezbollah terrorist, who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000. Sakafi invested significant efforts to develop communication capabilities between all of Hezbollah's units.

Presumably, Safaki would have been a big enough target for the IDF to conduct this raid. But if Safieddine was meeting with Safaki and other commanders in the same bunker at the time of the attack, then this became a Nasrallah-level defeat for Hezbollah, one in a series of such defeats in the span of less than three weeks

Of course, Safaki might be one reason for Israel's successes in that period. It was Hezbollah's "communications unit" -- telecommunications specifically, the NYT notes -- that created the path for Operation Grim Beeper and the exploding radios the next day. And again, what good is an intel unit that has been so thoroughly compromised and yet can't seem to adjust to that obvious reality? Why in the world would Hezbollah commanders still trust their facilities in Dahiyeh when Israel has repeatedly demonstrated that they know precisely where they are?

Hezbollah built a fearsome reputation as the world's strongest non-state terror network, not to mention one of the largest drug cartels. The last three weeks has shown them to be remarkably incompetent and flabby, almost to the point of wondering whether its leadership samples its own product a little too often. 

As for Safieddine, that will take a little time to work out. Bear in mind, though, that if he survived the strike or wasn't there when it happened, Safieddine would speak up as soon as possible to alert Hezbollah's remaining commanders that he's still alive. Just as with Nasrallah, the longer it takes to hear from him, the more likely it becomes that we won't ever hear from him again. 



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Hezbollah; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2024; 202410; airstrike; beruit; cartel; cartels; drugcartels; drugs; drugsmuggling; grimbeeper; hashemsafieddine; hassannasrallah; hezbollah; israel; lebanon; nasrallah; opgrimbeeper; safieddine

1 posted on 10/04/2024 7:52:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
They all blowed-up real good!
2 posted on 10/04/2024 7:58:48 PM PDT by StormEye
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To: SeekAndFind

Reports say Ibrahim Amin Al-Sayyed has been appointed as the new Hezbollah leader after yesterday’s Israeli assassination of Hashem Safieddine.


3 posted on 10/04/2024 8:17:29 PM PDT by Chad_the_Impaler
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To: SeekAndFind

Hezbos have actual intelligence?

Isn’t intelligence haram in Islam?


4 posted on 10/04/2024 8:26:14 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: SeekAndFind; All

5 posted on 10/04/2024 8:38:58 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (May the soy boys, feminazis, and alphabet weirdos choke on the toxic fumes of our masculinity)
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To: SeekAndFind

🙏💯


6 posted on 10/04/2024 8:56:41 PM PDT by Widget Jr ( 9/11 11M 26/11 10/7)
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To: SeekAndFind

who’s the new leader?

the kid from the mailroom?


7 posted on 10/04/2024 9:38:47 PM PDT by joshua c
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To: StormEye

That’s right.


8 posted on 10/04/2024 9:50:36 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Paladin2

That’s what I’d like to know as well.


9 posted on 10/04/2024 9:51:04 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: SeekAndFind

Xiden, kamawhore and the communist pig squad are all deeply saddened by this news.


10 posted on 10/04/2024 11:35:51 PM PDT by Newtoidaho (All I ask of living is to have no chains on me.)
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To: joshua c

No shortage of nasty evil ugly old men over there to pick from.


11 posted on 10/05/2024 4:33:17 AM PDT by yldstrk
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To: SeekAndFind

“Why in the world would Hezbollah commanders still trust their facilities in Dahiyeh when Israel has repeatedly demonstrated that they know precisely where they are?”
I don’t see what choice they have. If they set up meeting in Iran then they have the difficulties of getting new decision makers there, get fresh information from the field, and then somehow communicating any resulting decisions back to their subordinates back in southern Lebanon.
They are at the beginning of a ground war and need to react to Israeli maneuvers. Any decision to attempt to overwhelm Israeli air defense, evacuate forward deployed personnel, or concentrate forces needs coordination.


12 posted on 10/05/2024 4:48:09 AM PDT by conejo99
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To: SeekAndFind
Bear in mind, though, that if he survived the strike or wasn't there when it happened, Safieddine would speak up as soon as possible to alert Hezbollah's remaining commanders that he's still alive. Just as with Nasrallah, the longer it takes to hear from him, the more likely it becomes that we won't ever hear from him again.

The more communications he makes, the more grist for the Israeli intelligence.

Kind of a Hobsons choice.

Israel's enemies have relied on the shield of "world opinion", and Israel's moral reluctance to kill innocents.

13 posted on 10/05/2024 6:23:36 AM PDT by marktwain (The Republic is at risk. Resistance to the Democratic Party is Resistance to Tyranny. )
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To: conejo99

Israel has been reading their text messages for months.They know everything at this point.


14 posted on 10/05/2024 10:36:21 AM PDT by The Free Engineer
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To: Chad_the_Impaler

It should be advertised that the bombs contain used women’s kotex and tampons. That could interfere with their delusions of Paradise for dying fighting infidels.


15 posted on 10/05/2024 6:00:51 PM PDT by arthurus (covfefe hd)
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To: SeekAndFind

Might as well start a new list of who has not been hit yet.

It will be a shorter list to maintain.


16 posted on 10/05/2024 8:44:31 PM PDT by Redcitizen
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