The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Jihad Mughniyeh was a teenager when his father, the late Hezbollah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, was assassinated in Damascus in February of 2008. This past October, Jihad was appointed Hezbollah's military commander of the Syrian Golan. On Sunday, he was reportedly assassinated in an Israeli strike. He was nicknamed "the Prince" and was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's protege. The group's intention of priming him for leadership became clear with his October appointment to military commander, despite his age and lack of experience. Chief of Hezbollah operations in Syria Mohammed Issa was chosen to be Jihad's mentor. Issa, also killed in Sunday's strike, was one of the founders of Hezbollah's military wing. He in effect took over the position as mentor from the elder Mughniyeh's brother-in-law Mustafa Badr al-Din, who went on to become Hezbollah's military leader when Mughniyeh was assassinated. When Bader al-Din was declared wanted by the Special Tribune for Lebanon for the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, he was forced to go into hiding, and was no longer able to take "the Prince" under his wing. According to Lebanese reports, the people killed in Sunday's strike included Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Abu Ali al-Tabtabani, who was serving as an advisor to Hezbollah in the Syrian Golan and was Jihad's right-hand man. The reports say al-Tabtabani and Issa had arrived in the Syrian Golan from a Syrian base used by Hezbollah and Revolutionary Guard officials to be briefed by Jihad about preliminary plans to attack Israel in the Golan Heights region.
Credit: Reuters
Jihad's father was responsible for orchestrating Hezbollah's military strategy during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Even before his father's death, Jihad was being groomed to become a leader in the terrorist organization.