The deceased head of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallahconsidered the most powerful man in Lebanonlived in the secrecy since the last war between Israel and the Islamist movement in 2006. But on Friday the Israeli army managed to locate and kill him.
Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its general secretary died the day before in a violent bombing Israeli in a southern suburb Beirutbastion of the pro-Iran movement.
Nasrallah, murdered at the age of 64, appeared rarely in public since the war who confronted his movement with the Israeli army in mid-2006, and his place of residence It was always a secret.
But despite the secrecythe head of the powerful Shiite militia received visitors, including the leaders of movements allied Palestinians, who published photos of the meetings.
The journalists and personalities who met with him reported having been led by Hezbollah in safety cars to a location that is difficult to identify.
Nasrallah regularly uttered speeches broadcast live, which had everyone in suspense Lebanonsince he was considered the most powerful man in the country because at the head of Hezbollah he had the power to decide on the war or peace.
For his Shiite followers, his figure was the object of a cult, but his influence extended into political spheres and his death may have implications for the entire region.
– A political force –
Nasrallah came to lead Hezbollah in 1992, at the age of 32, when his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi was killed by Israel.
Upon assuming command, he led Hezbollah, the God Partyfrom an armed militia to becoming the political force most powerful of Lebanonrepresented in Parliament and in the government.
At the same time he developed the arsenal of his formation that claimed to have 100,000 combatants and possess powerful weapons, including missiles high precision.
Hezbollah is the only formation that refused to hand over its weapons at the end of the war civil (1975-1990) using as an argument the need for a “endurance against Israel“, whose army gradually withdrew from the country until completely evacuating the south in May 2000, after 22 years of occupation.
Throughout the clashes between his troops and the Israeli army, Nasrallah consolidated his status as a leader and cemented it in 1997 after the death in combat of his eldest son, Hadi.
He conflict of 2006 with Israelwhich lasted 33 days, allowed him to expose the strength of his movement that faced the Israeli army.
The war It caused the death of 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them military.
Nasrallah proclaimed at the end of this war a “victory divine” and acquired a hero profile in the Arab world.
But in the Lebanon was criticized by various sectors when his party was accused of being involved in the murder of the former prime minister Rafic Hariri in 2005, and then when his militias briefly took control of the capital in May 2008.
– Descendant of prophet muhammad –
Nasrallah always wore clerical robes and a black turban characteristic of the Sayed, the descendants of the prophet muhammad with whom he identified. At the command of Hezbollah, he managed to have influence beyond the Lebanonthroughout the region.
In 2013 he announced that he had intervened militarily in Syria to support the regime Bashar al Assadtrapped in a war civil war that broke out after the repression of peaceful protests in 2011, which later led to an armed insurrection.
With the full support of Irantrained and supported the movements close to Tehran in the region.
Hezbollah is the “crown jewel” of the allies of Iran in Middle Eastwhich constitute the so-called “axis of endurance” which includes armed groups in Iraq, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Nasrallah was born on August 31, 1960 in a modest family of nine children, in an area known as “the cordon of misery” that surrounded Beirut.
His family was originally from the town of Bazuriyé in the south of the Lebanon.
managed to study theology in the Shiite holy city of Najafin Iraq, but had to leave in 1978 during the wave of repression against the Shiites promoted by Saddam Hussein.
Back to Lebanon joined the Shiite Amal movement, but with the invasion Israeli in 1982, was part of a split that was the founding nucleus of Hezbollah, created under the impulse of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Nasrallah was married and he was the father of five children, he spoke fluent Farsi and in an unusual interview he said that in his youth he played soccer and that he adored Maradona.
