For decades he was the face of the Iran-backed group, and once claimed victory over Israel, but his death in an airstrike shows none of its enemies in the Middle East are safe, writes an expert on the region
“The Israeli military warship which assaulted our infrastructure, look at it … burning.” As the camera cut to footage of the burning warship in the sea opposite Beirut, the words of Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, in a televised speech during the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed group cemented his image as a larger-than-life leader. He was the strongest paramilitary and political actor in Lebanon for more than three decades and his killing by Israel is a transformative moment for the group and will have repercussions across the region.
