The Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Friday one of its top commanders, Mustafa Badreddine, had been killed in an Israeli air strike at the Lebanese-Syrian border this week.
“He took part in most of the operations of the Islamic resistance since 1982,” Hezbollah said in a statement announcing his death. He was killed on Tuesday night, the statement said.
Badreddine, who is sanctioned by the United States, was a brother-in-law of the late Hezbollah military commander Imad Moughniyah.
He was indicted by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik al-Hariri.
Badreddine was sentenced to death in Kuwait for his role in bomb attacks there in 1983. He escaped from prison in Kuwait after Iraq, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, invaded the country in 1990.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, is fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.