A Glimpse at Mustapha Amin Badreddine: Leader of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council

A Glimpse at Mustapha Amin Badreddine: Leader of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council

Mustapha Amin Badreddine (a.k.a. Mustapha Youssef Badreddine, Sami Issa, Elias Fouad Sa’b, Ilyas Sa’b and by his nom-de-guerre Dhu al-Fiqar) is an important military and intelligence leader in the Lebanese Hezbollah. Badreddine is reported to have succeeded Imad Mughniyeh as the head of Hezbollah’s majlis al-jihadi (Jihad Council). The council oversees the organization’s domestic military operations and its international military operations in coordination with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) (al-Akhbar [Beirut], July 4, 2011). He is also reportedly a member of Hezbollah’s ruling nine-member Shura Council, led by the organization’s secretary general, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah (al-Nahar [Beirut], May 20).   

Badreddine was born in the southern Beirut suburb of al-Ghobeiry in 1961 (an-Nahar [Beirut], May 20). Referred to as the “spinal cord” of Hezbollah, Badreddine possesses a wooden leg after losing his limb in battle. He is described as charismatic, fierce and an effective orator and motivator (al-Rai [Kuwait City], July 2, 2011). In 1983, Badreddine and seventeen other men were arrested by Kuwaiti security forces on the suspicion that he had helped plan seven car bomb attacks in Kuwait, including the bombing of the French and U.S. embassies, which led to more than a hundred casualties (Kuwait Times [Kuwait City], July 3, 2011). Kuwaiti and Israeli news sources accused Badreddine, under the alias of “Sami Issa,” to have planned the failed assassination attempt on the amir of Kuwait in 1985 (al-Mustaqbal al-Arab [Beirut], June 3). In 1990, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Badreddine was released from prison by the Iraqi military and subsequently fled Kuwait for Lebanon (al-Arabiya [Dubai], July 1, 2011).  

In addition to being cousins and in-laws, Badreddine and Imad Mughniyeh were reputed to have a close relationship that was built by their long history of participating together in militant organizations during the Lebanese civil war (al-Nahar [Beirut], June 30, 2011; al-Arabiya [Dubai], July 1, 2011). Badreddine worked closely with Mughniyeh on a policy of capturing Israeli soldiers during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in order to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian fighters held by Israel. He is believed to have been an advocate of patience and tough negotiating with Israel to achieve the release of the Arab fighters (al-Akhbar [Beirut], July 4, 2011). As Mughniyeh’s top lieutenant, Badreddine is also believed to have helped develop and to have overseen Hezbollah’s counter-intelligence operations since Mughniyeh’s death (al-Rai [Kuwait City], July 2, 2011). It is alleged that Badreddine at one point served as an interlocutor between Mughniyeh and Osama bin Laden (al-Nahar [Beirut], July 30, 2010).  

Badreddine is presently accused by the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) of being the primary suspect and one of four Lebanese men with alleged Hezbollah connections responsible for planning and executing the February 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri (al-Arabiya [Dubai], July 1, 2011). The STL tried Badreddine and the three other suspects in the Hariri assassination in absentia in February 2012. [1] The U.S. Department of the Treasury listed Badreddine in September 2012 as a terrorist responsible for commanding Hezbollah’s operations in the Middle East and globally. [2]  

Recently, Badreddine is alleged to have been a participant or planner in several high-profile attacks. European and Israeli intelligence services assert that, as head of the organization’s Jihad Council, Badreddine is in direct command of “Unit 910,” an elite Hezbollah military unit that is tasked with attacking targets internationally. The Israelis accuse Badreddine of authorizing the July 2012 attack on a tourist bus carrying Israelis in Bargas, Bulgaria that killed 6 people (Zamn Press Arabic [Jerusalem], June 2). Lebanese sympathetic to the anti-Assad, anti-Iranian March 14 political coalition allege that Badreddine boasted to Syrian intelligence about his role in coordinating the October 2012 assassination of Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan, the head of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch. [3] 

In the context of the Syrian civil war, Badreddine is believed to have directed Hezbollah’s military efforts in coordination with the Syrian military in the strategic central-western town of al-Qusayr in Homs governorate, near the Lebanese border (al-Nahar [Beirut], May 20). Badreddine’s role in the capture of al-Qusayr is controversial, with one anti-Assad Lebanese news source stating that he had promised Sayid Hassan Nasrallah that the battle for al-Qusayr would be only a “short stroll” for Hezbollah fighters (al-Mustaqbal [Beirut], May 23). Syrian opposition fighters in the area of al-Qusayr, prior to the town’s capture by Syrian military and Hezbollah forces, recently released a video calling for “eye-for-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth” revenge against Hezbollah and the “criminal” Mustapha Badreddine [4]. 

Badreddine is an enigmatic and controversial figure amongst both Hezbollah’s supporters and its opponents. He is a disciple of Mughniyeh and is the senior military and intelligence chief of Hezbollah. He is responsible for planning and executing operations in Lebanon and abroad, including the coordination of Hezbollah’s increasing military efforts in the Syrian conflict. Hezbollah’s military efforts in the Syrian conflict, which have evolved from the July 2006 conflict, are changing the way that the Syrian opposition is fighting as well as the way that the Syrian government is responding. 

Nicholas A. Heras is an independent analyst and consultant on Middle East issues and a former David L. Boren Fellow. 

Notes

1. “Mustafa Amine Badreddine,” Special Tribunal for Lebanon, February 1, 2012, Available at: https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/stl-11-01/main/accused/mustafa-amine-badreddine.

2. “Treasury Designates Hizballah Leadership,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, September 13, 2012, Available at: https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1709.aspx.

3. “Reports: Mustapha Badr al-Din Boasts of Assassinating al-Hassan in Front of Syrian Intelligence Officials,” March 14 Official Website, April 21, Available at: https://www.14march.org/news-details.php?nid=NDUzNDQ0.

4. “Free Syrian Army Fighters Threaten Mustapha Badr al-Din, Commander of the ‘Party of Allat’ [Hezbollah] in al-Qusayr,” YouTube video posted by user with screen name TishreenInfo, May 29, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvNhhdpikd0.