Senior Hezbollah commander killed in Syria

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT

Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah group announced Friday that one of its senior commanders in Syria has been killed.

In a statement, Hezbollah said that Mustafa Badreddine, a field commander in Syria and a suspect in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafic Hariri, was killed on Tuesday in a blast near Damascus International Airport.

It is still unclear if the explosion was caused by an airstrike or by artillery shelling, the statement added.

Badreddine had taken part in most of Hezbollah’s operations since 1982. According to Hezbollah-affiliated media, he had been in Syria since 2011.