Israeli strike in Lebanon: Who was Ibrahim Aqil, the head of the elite Hezbollah unit killed by the IDF?

After the spectacular explosions, attributed to the Hebrew state, of pagers and walkie-talkies targeting members of Hezbollah on Tuesday and Wednesday and which cost the lives of at least 37 people, the Lebanese Shiite movement lost this Friday one of the leaders of its military branch, during an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut which left at least 15 dead and around fifty injured.

“The head of the Al-Radwan force, Ibrahim Aqil, has been killed,” a source close to the Lebanese Shiite movement told AFP. He lost his life “during a meeting with commanders.”

A founding member of Hezbollah’s military wing, Ibrahim Aqil had taken over from Fouad Chokr, who was killed on July 30 in a similar strike on the pro-Iranian movement’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut. He was head of the powerful Al-Radwan formation, an elite unit whose main mission is to infiltrate northern Israel, particularly the Galilee.

Already in January, a commander of the elite Al-Radwan unit, Wissam Jawad al-Tawil, was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon. This unit is composed of experienced fighters trained in assaults. Some have fought in Syria or in other countries in the region. Israel is demanding the withdrawal of Al-Radwan from the border areas of southern Lebanon, a demand transmitted by international mediators to Lebanon.

Implicated in two attacks against the United States

Ibrahim Aqil, aka Tahsin, was far from unknown. The US State Department’s counterterrorism program “Rewards for Justice” offered “a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest and/or conviction of Ibrahim Aqil, a leading Hezbollah leader.”

“In the 1980s, Aqil was a leading member of Hezbollah’s terrorist cell, the Islamic Jihad Organization, which claimed responsibility for the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63, and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel. Also in the 1980s, Aqil led the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there,” the U.S. State Department said in a memo.

But “his ability to remain discreet and evade capture earned him the nickname ‘The Ghost’ within the organization,” according to the Libnanews website.

Israel confirms death of Ibrahim Aqil

“Ibrahim Aqil, head of Hezbollah’s operations unit and commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, was eliminated in a targeted strike in Beirut earlier today. In the strike, senior operatives of Hezbollah’s operations staff as well as commanders of the Radwan unit were eliminated alongside Aqil,” the Israeli military confirmed on the social network X.

“Ibrahim Aqil and the Radwan commanders eliminated today were planning an attack codenamed ‘Conquering Galilee,’ in which Hezbollah planned to infiltrate Israeli communities to abduct and kill innocent civilians in a manner similar to the October 7, 2023 massacre,” the Israeli military further claims, as the first anniversary of the attack approaches.

“This is huge: the assassination of Ibrahim Aqil is as serious as that of Fouad Chokr. Now, Hezbollah has lost its supreme military command. Without a communications system and without a military command, it cannot conduct effective military operations,” the researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy believes on the social network X.

The Iranian embassy in Lebanon has vehemently denounced Israel’s “madness” following the death of Ibrahim Aqil. “We condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli madness and arrogance that has crossed all limits by targeting residential areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” the embassy said on X.