The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday killed the head of Hezbollah’s aerial forces in a precision airstrike in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut.
Senior Hezbollah terrorist Muhammad Hossein Sarur commanded numerous attacks with “drone, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles launched at the Israeli homefront,” an IDF statement said.
Sarur was also “one of the project leaders for the production of UAVs in Lebanon, establishing sites to build explosive and [intelligence] gathering drones in Lebanon, including some located under civilian buildings in Beirut and other areas in Lebanon,” the army added.
The slain terrorist joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and served in a variety of positions, including as the commander of the surface-to-air missile unit and the “Aziz” unit, responsible for terror operations on Lebanon’s southern border with the Jewish state. Sarur also served as the Iranian-backed terrorist organization’s envoy to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV channel, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, reported that a total of four people were killed in the Israeli airstrike.
Two Lebanese “security sources” cited by the Reuters press agency confirmed that Sarur, also known as Abu Saleh, was among the dead.
“The IDF will continue to undermine the capabilities of the Hezbollah terrorist group and to dismantle the organization’s top command,” the Israeli military vowed in the statement on Thursday afternoon.
Shortly before the IDF announcement, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a photo of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approving the assassination during his flight to the US.
On Tuesday, Israeli Air Force jets carried out another strike in Dahiyeh, killing Ibrahim Qubaisi, the commander of Hezbollah’s missile array.
That strike came less than 24 hours after the attempted assassination of Hezbollah’s No. 3 terrorist commander, Ali Karaki, in the same area.
Also Thursday, Netanyahu denied reports of an imminent ceasefire, with his office releasing the following statement that he “has directed the IDF to continue fighting with full force, according to the plan that was presented to him.”
Israel Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Thursday stated that “We are continuing our sequence of operations – eliminating Hezbollah terrorists, dismantling Hezbollah’s offensive infrastructure, and destroying rockets and missiles.”
Last Friday, Sept. 20, the IDF took credit for a targeted airstrike in Dahiyeh that killed more than a dozen senior Hezbollah terrorist officials, including Ibrahim Aqil, who was also wanted by Washington over his involvement in the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut.
Jerusalem has escalated attacks on Hezbollah since adding the return of evacuated Israeli civilians to the north as an official war goal on Sept. 17.
Hezbollah has attacked Israel nearly daily since Oct. 8, 2023, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 40 people and caused widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the violence.
