The militant Islamic group Hezbollah says its top military commander, Mustafa Badreddine, has been killed in Syria.

The Lebanese-based group issued a statement Friday on a Beirut television channel saying Badreddine, 55, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Israel did not immediately confirm the strike.

Badreddine has been Hezbollah’s military commander since 2008.

He was one of four men accused in absentia of plotting the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. The trial began in 2014 at The Hague, Netherlands, and is ongoing.

Hezbollah denied any involvement in the attack.

Badreddine was sentenced to death in Kuwait for his role in bomb attacks there in 1983. He escaped from prison in Kuwait after the country was invaded by Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein in 1990.

Also, a 2015 U.S. Department of the Treasury statement said Badreddine has been responsible for the group’s military operations in Syria since 2011.
…