Top Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine has been killed, the Lebanese group said on Friday, the biggest blow to the Iranian-backed organization since its military chief was killed in 2008. Badreddine, 55, was one of the highest ranking officials in the group, and assessed by the US government to be responsible for Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria, where it is fighting alongside the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A Hezbollah statement did not say when, where or how he was killed, though it cited him saying he would return from Syria either victorious or as “a martyr”.