From the Liveblog of
Sunday, June 14, 2026
IDF confirms it killed senior Hezbollah commander responsible for 2007 attack on US troops
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Senior Hezbollah commander Ali Mussa Daqduq was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon over the weekend, the IDF announces.
Daqduq was targeted in a strike on Friday in an area south of the Litani River, according to the military.
The IDF says Daqduq held a series of senior positions in Hezbollah, “served as a source of knowledge with extensive operational experience,” and in recent years “played a central role in advancing terrorist attacks and combat operations against the State of Israel and IDF soldiers.”
According to the IDF, among his roles were head of former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s security unit; a commander in the elite Radwan Force; a commander in the operations unit of Hezbollah’s Nasr Unit; head of infantry in Hezbollah; and the commander of the “Golan File,” Hezbollah’s entrenchment efforts in southern Syria.
“Over the past several years, Daqduq led much of Hezbollah’s operational planning against IDF soldiers along the Lebanon border,” the military says.
Daqduq was also imprisoned by US forces in 2007 for orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of five American soldiers in Iraq.
The US extradited Daqduq to Iraq, which assured Washington he would be prosecuted. NBC said he was the last prisoner the US handed over to Iraq before withdrawing from the country in December 2011 after eight years of war there. Iraq, in turn, acquitted Daqduq and released him in late 2012, to Washington’s outrage.
Daqduq was reported to have been killed in an Israeli strike in Syria in November 2024, although it appears he survived the attack. Daqduq’s son, Hassan Ali Daqduq, was killed on December 8, 2023, in an Israeli drone strike in southern Syria.
The Times of Israel Community.