Another Hezbollah Senior Commander Reportedly Taken Out In Israeli Airstrike

Another senior Hezbollah official has been killed in a targeted Israeli drone strike, the day following the killing of elite Hezbollah special forces commander Wissam Hassan Al-Tawil. 

Tuesday’s strike killed Ali Hussein Barji, widely described as the commander of Hezbollah’s aerial forces in southern Lebanon. He reportedly oversaw Hezbollah’s drone forces, which has sent hundreds of explosive-laden UAVs as well as drones for for the collection of surveillance over Northern Israel in the last months.

While the death was widely reported in international media, Hezbollah later in the evening denied that Barji had been killed. According to Reuters, Hezbollah denies the Israel Defense Forces killed Ali Hussein Barji, the terror group’s drone commander in southern Lebanon, saying in a statement that “the commander was never subjected to any assassination attempt as the enemy claimed.”

Iranian-made drones

The attack reportedly happened in the town of Khirbet Selm, within hours before Al-Tawil’s funeral procession. Israeli media had characterized the hit as direct retaliation for an earlier drone attack on a northern Israeli base:

Barji was killed hours after an explosives-laden drone launched by Hezbollah blew up in the IDF Northern Command headquarters in Safed. Barji was involved in the attack on the base.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, which struck a major IDF command center, and said it had launched “a number of explosive attack drones” at the base in response to the alleged Israeli assassinations of al-Tawil on Monday and top Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon last week.

An Israeli government spokesman has complained that “Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a totally unnecessary war.” The spokesman, Eylon Levy, said in a Monday press briefing, “We are now at a fork in the road.”

Tuesday saw additional IDF airstrikes in various parts of south Lebanon. The rapid and growing pace of the tit-for-tat, with major events and assassinations now occurring daily, suggests an all-out war could be around the corner.

But by almost all accounts of military observers and regional monitors, Hezbollah is much more formidable that Hamas, having several times the military capability to sustain a fight with the Israeli army in terms of manpower and weaponry.

#Hezbollah claims it responded to the killing of #Hamas al-Arouri, and the killing of one of Wassim al-Tawil (one of the commanders of the Radwan force), by firing drones at the Israeli military’s northern command HQ in Tsfat.

One impact has been reported. pic.twitter.com/ARLatCcjIb

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) January 9, 2024

A full Israel-Hezbollah war would be a nightmare for the whole region, and would also drag the country of Lebanon into further suffering, amid the severe economic crisis of the last few years. Iran would also likely get more deeply involved.

If things slide to that point, among Israel’s first targets would likely be Beirut International Airport, which is precisely what happened in the 2006 war.