Who Was Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah Commander Whose Death Sparked Today's Conflict

Lebanon- based militant group Hezbollah fired a large number of missiles at Israel on Sunday, retaliating for the assassination of their senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last month. 

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire since October 7, while avoiding a major escalation. While both sides had avoided a major escalation, tensions rose significantly after a missile strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 people. While Hezbollah denied involvement in that attack, Israel responded with targeted airstrikes, assassinating Fuad Shukr and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. 

On Sunday, the Iranian-backed movement said the attack was a response to Israel's actions and announced that they had completed the "first phase" of its retaliation against the Jewish State, reported Reuters.

Who was Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr?

Fuad Shukr, also known by the alias "Al-Hajj Mohsin", was a senior commander in Hezbollah, a militant group based in Lebanon, widely regarded as a terrorist organisation by several countries, including the United States and Israel. Shukr was among the founding members of Hezbollah during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He was part of the generation of Lebanese Shi'ites who aligned with Iran's Revolutionary Guards to establish the group. 

He was a close associate of Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's former military commander who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008. Shukr's prominence in the group grew after Mughniyeh's death. 

The US accused Shukr of playing a central role in the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 US military personnel. This attack is one of the deadliest against American forces in the Middle East. The US government had placed a bounty of up to $5 million on Shukr's head through its Rewards for Justice program.

Fuad Shukr served as a senior military commander in Hezbollah's forces in southern Lebanon and was a member of the group's highest military body, the Jihad Council. He played a key role in Hezbollah's military operations in Syria, particularly in supporting President Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war. Hezbollah's involvement in Syria was crucial to Assad's survival during the conflict's early years. 

Fuad Shukr was also a special adviser to Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and was a member of the Shura Council, a key decision-making body within the organisation.

On July 30, Fuad Shukr was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Following the airstrike, Lebanese security sources reported that Shukr was critically injured. His death was later confirmed by Israeli broadcast reports.