Jihad Moughniyah son of Hezbollah’s late commander killed in Israeli strike in Syria

The son of late Hezbollah military leader Imad Moughniyah was killed on Sunday when an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at his car in the Syrian province of Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, two sources close to Hezbollah said.

Jihad Moughniyah was killed with four other members of Hezbollah when his convoy was hit, the sources said. His father, who was on the United States’ most wanted list for attacks on Israeli and Western targets, was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.

Hezbollah issued a statement in which it admitted that 5 of its members were killed including commander Mohammad Issa from ArabSalim.

6 members of the Iranian Revolutionary guards were also reportedly killed in the strike according to Lebanese media reports

Hezbollah issued a statement after the incident :
“The Israeli enemy’s helicopters fired missiles at a group of Hezbollah’s fighters who were inspecting the town of Mazraat al-Amal in the Syrian Quneitra region,” Hizbullah’s media department announced in the statement.

The strike “resulted in the martyrdom of a number of jihadist brothers, whose names will be announced later, after informing their honorable families,” the Hezbollah statement added.

Al-Jadeed ( New) television for its part said “Iranian commander Abu Ali al-Tabtabani was among the martyrs of the Israeli raid on Golan.”

Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli security source said an Israeli helicopter carried out a strike against “terrorists” in the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights.

The source told Agence France-Presse that the militants were preparing an attack on Israel and that the airstrike took place near Quneitra, close to the ceasefire line separating the Syrian part of the Golan Heights from the Israeli-occupied sector, confirming a report by Hezbollah’s al-Manar television.

The strike comes three days after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said he considered frequent Israeli strikes in Syria as a major aggression, and that Syria and its allies had the right to respond. Hezbollah has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria’s nearly four-year-old civil war.

Hezbollah reportedly  announced the names of all its members that were killed today in the Israeli airstrike;

Hazem Raad from Beqaa , Abbas Hijazi from Ghazieh , Jihad Imad  Moughniyah from Tair Dibba,  Mohammad Issa from ArabSalim and  Samir  Kuntar from Abey Mount Lebanon

Both Kuntar ( also transcribed  Kantar, Quntar, Qantar ) and  Moughniyah were reportedly in charge of hezbollah’s  Golan front which is backed by the Syrian army

Kuntar

On April 22, 1979, at the age of 16,Kuntar participated in the attempted kidnapping of an Israeli family in Nahariya that resulted in the deaths of four Israelis and two of his fellow kidnappers. Kuntar and his team broke into an apartment building and kidnapped a father, 31-year-old Danny Haran, and his 4-year-old daughter, Einat, taking them to a nearby beach and killing them. A member of the Palestine Liberation Front , he was convicted of murder by Israel.

On July 16, 2008, Hezbollah transferred coffins containing the remains of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev captured in 2006 , in exchange for Kuntar and four Hezbollah members taken prisoner during the 2006 Lebanon War.

On November 24, 2008, Kuntar visited Syria, where he met with president Bashar Assad. Assad awarded him the Syrian Order of Merit and in early 2009 he was honored by former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Nasrallah

MTV reported  around 8  PM Beirut time that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah will  deliver  this evening a speech in which he will announce that Hezbollah will retaliate against Israel with a painful strike.

But Voice of Lebanon reported around 10: 30 PM Beirut time   that Nasrallah will not deliver a speech this evening , contrary to what some media outlets have reported.

Update 

Hezbollah officially announced the  following names of its  6 fighters and commanders that were killed today in the Israeli airstrike, Lebanon Files reported about 11:30 PM  Beirut time :

Mohammad  Ahmad Issa, Jihad Imad  Moughniyah,  Abbas  ibrahim Hijazi, Mohammad Ali Hassan Abu Al Hassan, Ghazi Al Thawi and Ali Hassan Ibrahim

Neither Hazem Raad from Beqaa nor  Samir  Kuntar from Abey Mount Lebanon, were among those killed according to the announcement.

The Hezbollah announcement did not name the 6 Iranian Revolutionary Guard members that were  also reportedly  killed on Sunday

YL with Reuters