Israel claims to have killed Hezbollah official Nabil Kaouk 1 day after chief Hassan Nasrallah’s elimination

Israel introduced Sunday that it had killed one other high-ranking Hezbollah commander, one tipped as a possible successor to the slain longtime chief of the Iran-backed terror group, Hassan Nasrallah.

Nabil Kaouk was killed alongside a minimum of 10 others Saturday in an airstrike in Lebanon, Hezbollah additionally confirmed — its seventh high-ranking member taken out in simply over per week.

Kaouk, also referred to as Nabil Qaouk, was eyed as a attainable new chief to take over from Nasrallah — whose physique was discovered intact in rubble Saturday, a day after he was killed in an Israeli air assault on Beirut’s southern suburbs, sources confirmed to Reuters.

Kaouk had been the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council, overseeing the Iran-backed group’s operations in Lebanon’s southern area and orchestrating “terrorist assaults in opposition to the State of Israel and its residents,” the Israeli Protection Pressure mentioned in an announcement.

Kaouk joined Hezbollah within the Eighties, and his greater than 30 years plotting violence and terror could have put him in line for the group’s prime spot following the demise of longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, the Telegraph reported.

The U.S. sanctioned Kaouk in 2020 for serving to perform Hezbollah’s “violent agenda in opposition to U.S. pursuits,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin mentioned on the time.

Kaouk is the seventh prime Hezbollah official slain in Israel’s navy blitz that has left the group in shambles.

On Friday, the Israeli strike on an underground compound in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s chief of 30 years, Hassan Nasrallah, additionally took out prime commander Ali Karaki. 

The assassinations got here simply days after a high-tech assault that took out a whole bunch of Hezbollah members with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies. 

For the previous yr, Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily blows, with rocket assaults from Hezbollah being answered with focused airstrikes on its Lebanon strongholds.

Now, after a long time of terror, the destiny of Israel’s arch-enemy stays unsure. 

“It will shake the boldness of Hezbollah’s Iran-backed allies throughout the Arab world, from the Houthis in Yemen to the Fashionable Mobilization Forces in Iraq, in addition to Iran itself, sparking a tectonic shift in Iran’s community of affect within the Center East,” mentioned Lina Khatib, an affiliate fellow at Chatham Home, a world affairs assume tank.

In the meantime, Israel has vowed to maintain up the combat.

“The IDF will proceed to strike and eradicate the commanders throughout the Hezbollah terrorist group and can act in opposition to anybody who threatens the residents of the State of Israel,” its navy mentioned.

With Submit wires.