Fuad Shukr (Arabic: فؤاد شكر; 15 April 1961 – 30 July 2024; sometimes spelled Fouad Shukar and also known by his aliases Al-Hajj Mohsen or Mohsen Shukr)[1] was a Lebanese militant leader who was a senior member of Hezbollah. A member of Hezbollah's founding generation, Shukr was a senior military leader in the organization from the early 1980s. For over four decades, he was one of the group's leading military figures and was a military advisor to its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Shukr was, according to Israeli intelligence, a key figure in the transfer of Iranian guidance systems for Hezbollah's long-range missiles.[2] He was believed to have played a role in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings,[2] that killed 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians and two attackers. The U.S. Department of State designated Shukr as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2013.[3]
On 30 July 2024, Shukr was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut for his alleged responsibility for the Majdal Shams attack three days earlier, which killed 12 children.[4][5]
Early life
Shukr was born on 15 April 1961,[6] at the village of Al-Nabi Shayth, in eastern Lebanon, which was also the birthplace of Hezbollah co-founder Abbas al-Musawi. After Hezbollah's establishment, the village became one of its central bases of power. Shukr's house in Al-Nabi Shayth is believed to be the last known location of Ron Arad, an Israeli fighter pilot who went missing in Lebanon in 1986. Shukr received his military education at Imam Hossein University in Tehran.[7]
Militant career
From the time of Hezbollah's founding by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1982, Shukr was one of its leading military figures. He was part of the group's founding generation and its most senior military commander, serving as an advisor on military operations to Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.[8][9] The militant organization's top military commander in southern Lebanon, he was on the Jihad Council, where his role was to serve as an advisor to Hezbollah's leadership on all matters related to military operations, including training with the IRGC's elite Quds Force.[7]
He was responsible for procuring the group's more advanced weapons arsenal, including precision-guided missiles, cruise missiles, antiship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs.[11] According to U.S. intelligence, Shukr was sent to Tehran in 1994 to handle a shipment of Stinger missiles from Iran.[7] His prominence grew after Mughniyeh was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.[11]
By the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, Shukr was Hezbollah's military commander in southern Lebanon, its most important sector.[7][12][8] According to some reports, in 2016, Shukr replaced Badreddine as Hezbollah's military commander, after Badreddine was killed during Hezbollah's intervention in the Syrian Civil War.[13]
On 30 July 2024, Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut for his alleged responsibility for the Majdal Shams attack on 27 July that killed 12 Druze children.[4][5] Before the airstrike, he had received a call asking him to go from his office to his home. Shukr had his office on the second floor, and lived on the seventh floor of the same building. It is believed that the call was made after someone connected to Israel, breached Hezbollah's internal communications network, and saw it would be easier to target him at a higher floor.[14] Hezbollah said that The Wall Street Journal report was "fabricated" and "full of lies".[15] The attack also killed Iranian military adviser Milad Bedi,[16] four civilians and injured 80 others.[17] Shukr's funeral was held on 2 August.[18]
^Levitt, Matthew (31 July 2024). "The Death of a Hezbollah Lifer". Policy Watch. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Archived from the original on 1 August 2024.
^"Fu'ad Shukr". Counter Extremism Project. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
^Engel Rasmussen, Sune; Chamseddine, Adam; Keller-Lynn, Carrie (18 August 2024). "How Israel Killed a Ghost". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
