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Who really killed Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine?
Who really killed Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine?
I've been reading the Twitter timeline of Elijah Magnier, who is one of the most astute observers of both Hezbollah and the Syrian conflict. He believes the assignment of blame to Syrian rebels is deliberate disinformation. I'm inclined to agree.
Israel has assassinated as much of the top Hezbollah leadership as it can over the years. It killed Abbas Musawi, the top leader who preceded Hassan Nasrallah. It assassinated Imad Mugniyeh and later, his son. It's also assassinated Syrian generals and IRG commanders in Syria. That's why you shouldn't believe the nonsense the world media offers about Israel's alleged neutrality in the Syria conflict.
When someone as senior as Mustafa Badreddine is assassinated, it doesn't happen by coincidence and not via an artillery shell. It's a deliberate, targeted assassination - well-planned and executed with sophisticated weaponry. There is only one power in the region capable of doing this, and with a history of doing it in the past: Israel.
By the way, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted that there had been no artillery shelling of the airport for days before the assassination there.
Magnier adds another tantalizing piece of information: that only 30 minutes before his murder, Badreddine met with Iran's top IRG commander, Qassem Soleimani in the same location where he died. If so, whoever killed the Hezbollah commander likely knew Soleimani was there and chose not to kill him. If Israel did it, the reason would be clear: killing Iran's top military commander would necessitate a huge Iranian response. It would threaten to destroy the Iran nuclear deal at the heart of Barack Obama's legacy. If the U.S. knew about the plans for this attack (and given the NSA's penetration of foreign intelligence services, including Israel's, that's entirely possible), it would warn Israel not to kill Soleimani. But it would not care about Badreddine, since he and Mugniyeh were instrumental in attacks against U.S. interests in Lebanon in 1982. In assassinating Osama bin Laden, Obama has shown not just willingness, but eagerness to murder Islamists who've killed Americans. In fact, it's the worst aspect of the outgoing president's legacy.
Comment: Occam's razor: All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one. Who had capability, resources, intel, motive and track record worthy of this level of incisive assassination? All fingers point to...