An Israeli bombing raid on Tehran has killed a top Hezbollah member and a Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada commander, an Iran-aligned Iraqi faction, a Lebanese security source and the Iraqi group said.
The Hezbollah militant has been named as Abu Ali Khalil, who was said to have acted as a bodyguard for former head of the group Hassan Nasrallah. Khalil had been attending a religious pilgrimage in Iraq where he met a top Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada official. They then went on to Tehran, where the three of them were killed in the Israeli air strike, the source added.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada verified the fatalities in a formal statement, where their security unit chief was reported to have been among the fatalities together with Khalil.
The attack is the latest in a series of increasingly intense hostilities between Iran and Israel, who are currently enjoying their ninth straight day of mutual attacks. Though Hezbollah has not joined Iran’s missile attacks against Israel directly, this attack could only further heat up tensions in the region.
The tensions escalated when Israel started attacking Iranian nuclear and military installations, alleging Tehran was on the verge of gaining nuclear weapons capability a claim Iran has repeatedly rejected.
