JERUSALEM (VINnews) – The Israel Defense Forces announced the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Ali Mussa Daqduq in an airstrike in southern Lebanon on Friday, the military said.

Daqduq, a veteran Hezbollah operative with extensive operational experience, was targeted south of the Litani River, according to the IDF. The strike took place over the weekend.

The military described Daqduq as a central figure in planning and advancing terrorist attacks against Israel and its forces. He held multiple senior roles within the Iran-backed group, including head of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s security unit, a commander in the elite Radwan Force, a commander in the operations unit of Hezbollah’s Nasr Unit, head of infantry, and commander of the “Golan File” — Hezbollah’s efforts to entrench in southern Syria.

“Over the past several years, Daqduq led much of Hezbollah’s operational planning against IDF soldiers along the Lebanon border,” the IDF said in a statement.

Daqduq was previously imprisoned by U.S. forces in 2007 for his role in orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of five American soldiers in Iraq. He was reportedly killed in an Israeli strike in Syria in November 2024, but it later emerged that he survived that attack. His son, Hassan Ali Daqduq, was killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Syria on Dec. 8, 2023.

The IDF has intensified operations against Hezbollah leadership and infrastructure in southern Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions.