Hezbollah Confirms that Top Official Hashem Safieddine was Killed in an Israeli Strike

Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah - File/Reuters
Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah - File/Reuters
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Hezbollah Confirms that Top Official Hashem Safieddine was Killed in an Israeli Strike

Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah - File/Reuters
Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah - File/Reuters

Hezbollah announced Wednesday that Hashem Safieddine, one of its top officials who had been widely expected to be the group’s next leader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The announcement came a day after Israel said it had killed Safieddine in a strike earlier this month in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Safieddine, a powerful cleric within the party ranks, had been expected to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, The AP reported.
Over the past several weeks, Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership.



Iraq’s FM: Israeli-Russian Hostage Tsurkov is Alive

Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. AFP
Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. AFP
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Iraq’s FM: Israeli-Russian Hostage Tsurkov is Alive

Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. AFP
Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. AFP

Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who is being held hostage by an Iraqi militia, is alive and the Iraqi prime minister is working on her release, Iraqi foreign minister Fouad Hussein told Axios reporter Barak Ravid on Thursday.

Tsurkov, a 38-year-old student at Princeton University, disappeared in Baghdad in March 2023 while doing research for her doctorate. She had entered the country on her Russian passport.

The only sign she was alive has been a video broadcast in November 2023 on an Iraqi television station and circulated on pro-Iranian social media purporting to show her.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. But Israel believes she is being held by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia.