Israeli forces bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday, targeting a residential building that housed elite unit commander Radwan Hajji Ibrahim Aqil.
Ibrahim Aqil, also known as Hajj Abdul-Qader, is a senior Hezbollah official who has been active with the movement since its inception in the 1980s, but very little is known about him, as his life has been shrouded in secrecy due to the nature of his position.
This is common for senior Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon. As in the case of Commander Fouad Shokor, more information will be revealed later, and only what Hezbollah sees fit will become public.
Ibrahim Aqil, known by the nicknames Hajj Abdul-Qader and Hajj Tahsin, was born in 1962 in the province of Baalbek-Hermel in eastern Lebanon. Hezbollah revealed that it came from the town of Bednayel.
His path of resistance began in the 1980s with the formation of Hezbollah, serving in the military wing of the resistance, which the United States claims was behind the April 1983 bombings of the US embassy in Beirut and the October 1983 bombing of US Marine barracks, in which 241 American soldiers were killed.
At the time, the Reagan administration accused Hezbollah of planning both attacks, but no evidence was presented. The US accusations have given international prominence to a number of Hezbollah members, including Mostafa Badreddine, Imad Mughniyeh, Fouad Shokor and Ibrahim Aqil. As members of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, they were all placed on the terrorist list.
The United States claims that Aqil also masterminded the kidnapping of American and German citizens in Lebanon in a hostage crisis that took place between 1982 and 1992 in close cooperation with martyr Imad Mughniyeh. However, Hezbollah denies any involvement in those operations.
Little or nothing was known about Aqil’s responsibilities over the past 40 years except that he was the senior and chief commander of Hezbollah.
It is not known what position he held at the time of the murder, because it is possible that after the murder of Commander Shokor there was a hierarchical rearrangement within Hezbollah, as all information about such internal functioning is strictly confidential.
After his assassination, it was reported that he was the leader of the elite Radwan unit at the time of his death.
More information was revealed about the senior commander, and Hezbollah said he was one of the “pioneers of the Islamic resistance as we know it in Lebanon.” He was part of the commanders who resisted the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982.
In the early 90s, Aqil directly took over the training of Movement fighters, playing a key role in developing Hezbollah’s human capabilities. Later in the decade, he took over the leadership of Hezbollah’s General Staff.
Rising through the ranks, he was then appointed head of the operations department from 1997 to 2000, personally leading numerous major operations that were carried out at that time. He was also one of the senior Hezbollah commanders who led the fight against Israeli forces during the July 2006 war against Lebanon.
Aqil founded the Operations Department within Hezbollah, and since 2008 has been a senior operational advisor to the movement’s Secretary-General and leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. In the same year, he was appointed a member of the Council of Jihad.
During the 2010s, Aqil was among the senior Hezbollah leaders who planned and directed operations against terrorist organizations such as the so-called Islamic State on the Lebanese borders and inside Syria, which effectively ended their activities on the Lebanese borders and greatly reduced their capabilities and activities inside Syria.
Ever since the beginning of the war in Gaza on October 7 and the subsequent launch of the Lebanese front, Hajj Aqil was in charge of the execution and planning of all operations of Radwan’s forces against Israel.
Assassination attempts
The public is aware of only one assassination attempt on Aqil, which was on the eve of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, when a helicopter fired a missile at his location, which he survived. It is not known if he was injured at the time.
Nothing was said or heard about Aqil for the next 15 years until he was designated by the US Treasury Department under Executive Order 13582 for being a member of Hezbollah, and then in 2019 he was designated a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”.
Aqil’s name floated in media reports back in December amid escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, as Israeli media reported that he had been identified as the leader of Radwan’s forces, which had been heavily attacking Israeli forces during the conflict in the northern front.
The Radwan Force is Hezbollah’s most trained unit, serving as one of the most effective military units in the region. It was named after Commander Imad Mughniyeh, whose alias was Hajj Radwan. These are forces whose main goal is to penetrate deep into enemy territory.
Senior Israeli officers have repeatedly stressed that the forces are capable of launching coordinated attacks, including infiltrating Israeli settlements or military positions, stressing that even in the middle of a war they are undergoing extensive training to launch a ground offensive against Israel.
While the killing of Ibrahim Aqil is a definite blow to Hezbollah, the movement said it will not be swayed and its operations will continue as normal.
They added that leaders and commanders are of great importance to the movement, but that the continuation of operations does not depend on any one individual, as the structure ensures the preservation of the movement and its military operations regardless of the loss of any senior official, Klix.ba writes.
