BEIRUT: A Hezbollah commander has died during a mission in Iraq, sources familiar with the incident said yesterday, indicating the Lebanese group that is already fighting in Syria’s civil war may be involved in a second conflict in the region.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shia Islamist group, has not previously announced any role in the conflict in Iraq.
Four sources in Lebanon named the Hezbollah commander as Ibrahim al-Haj, a technical specialist involved in training. They said he was “martyred” in a battle near Mosul, a city in northern Iraq seized from government control last month by an al Qaeda offshoot known as the Islamic State.
His funeral was held on Wednesday in the village of Qilya in the Bekaa Valley.
REUTERS
