French newspaper Le Parisien reported that Israel was informed by an Iranian mole about the presence of Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday.
“The Israelis went all out; they didn’t want to miss their target,” commented a well-informed Lebanese security source to the daily, the day after Hassan Nasrallah’s death.
The Hezbollah leader was killed in the formation’s headquarters, a complex of six buildings in Dahyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut.
According to this source, the Israelis were tipped off in the afternoon by an Iranian mole about the imminent arrival of the Shiite leader at the location.
Le Parisien mentioned that Israel’s F-35 fighter jets, equipped with bunker-busting bombs, were lying in wait in Lebanese skies, ready for Nasrallah’s arrival at the command center. At the same time, nearby in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a funeral was being held for Mohammad Hussein Srour, a Hezbollah commander of the drone unit on the southern front, who had been killed the previous day in an airstrike.
Shortly after the burial, the French media stated that Hassan Nasrallah arrived at the headquarters, accompanied in the same car by the Iranian commander of the Quds Regiment, the elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Israelis, conducting 24-hour aerial surveillance, were certain of their target, the newspaper added.
“Twelve other commanders were also attending this emergency meeting with Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli intelligence services waited until everyone was in the room, where the Shiite militia was planning its military operations in the heavily fortified basement of its headquarters, before giving the order to strike. In total, Israeli pilots dropped six two-ton bombs,” it said.
“This is the largest attack we’ve seen since 2006,” the security source told Le Parisien. The explosion was heard all the way to downtown Beirut, with a thick cloud rising above Hezbollah’s headquarters. Of the buildings making up the complex, only rubble remained in the center of a giant crater, 30 meters deep. Two neighboring buildings were also destroyed by the blast.
Those responsible for following and relaying the instructions of the Shiite leader lost all contact with him immediately after the bombing. “No one could locate him or communicate with those who were with him,” a source close to Hezbollah reported.
As “contact was lost” with Hassan Nasrallah, the US quickly concluded that he was dead and stated that they had not been informed of the attack. Meanwhile, the Lebanese army sealed off the area around the US embassy in Awkar, in the northern suburbs of Beirut, and reinforced its personnel on site.
It wasn’t until the following day that the pro-Iranian movement confirmed the death of its leader.
