TerrorismHezbollah blames Israel, but assassinated leader had many enemies
Hassan al-Lakkis, the man considered to be Hezbollah’s tech expert, known for his expertise with drones, bombs, and other gadgets, was assassinated near his home last week. Al-Lakkis’s body was not yet cold when Hezbollah operatives began to blame Israel for the assassination, despite al-Lakkis’ long list of enemies. Hezbollah’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has gained it a long list of enemies, and many experts insist that the assassination of al-Lakkis does not resemble an Israeli-styled operation.
Hassan alLaqis in the vehicle he was killed in. // Source: mbari.org
Hassan al-Lakkis, the man considered to be Hezbollah’s tech expert, known for his expertise with drones, bombs, and other gadgets, was assassinated near his home last week. Al-Lakkis was in the inner circle of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan al Nasrallah, whose organization is backed and funded by Iran (“Hezbollah No. 3 commander gunned down in Beirut,” HSNW, 5 December 2013).
As midnight approached, al-Lakkis pulled into a parking garage under his building in Dahia, a Hezbollah-controlled district of south Beirut, when assassins approached him with gun shots. There had been several attempts on al-Lakkis’ life, but this recent one managed to killed him.
Fox News reports that al-Lakkis’s body was not yet cold when Hezbollah operatives began to blame Israel for the assassination, despite al-Lakkis’ long list of enemies. “The Israeli enemy tried to kill Lakkis many times …but its attempts have failed until this foul assassination overnight,” read a statement from Hezbollah. “This enemy should bear full responsibility and all the consequences of this heinous crime.”
Foreign Policy quotes a senior Israeli intelligence source to say that al-Lakkis was placed on a Mossad hit list . The source said that a list of people marked for death — key Islamist terrorists and and inividuals in Iran and Syria involved in developing unconventional weapons — was created in 2004 by Israel’s intelligence organization, and peridocially updated. Al-Lakkis is reported to be the last name on the list
Ronen Bergman, a writer on military and intelligence affairs for Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, told Foreign Policy that the secret list is likely to have included the leading figures who were killed in the following incidents:
