Hezbollah terrorists. Mustafa Mughniyeh was appointed Hezbollah’s new military commander. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah has appointed Mustafa Mughniyeh as its new military commander following the assassination of his uncle, Mustafa Badreddine, last week in Syria, the London-based Arabic daily newspaperAsharq Al-Awsat reported.

Mustafa Mughniyeh has deep family ties with Hezbollah. In addition to his recently assassinated uncle, his father Imad Mughniyeh served as Hezbollah’s terror commander until his assassination, likely in a joint CIA-Mossad operation, in Syria in 2008. Mustafa’s brother, Jihad, was killed by Israel in a raid in the Syrian Golan Heights last year.

But outside of his family’s terror ties, little is known about Mustafa Mughniyeh, who has never made any public appearances, even after the assassination of his brother. Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon told Asharq Al-Awsat that Mustafa Mughniyeh likely finished basic military training when he was 18 in 2005 and that he joined his father on operational missions after that point.

Following his father’s death in 2008, Mustafa Mughniyeh reportedly became close with his uncle, who succeeded his father as terror commander.

“He participated in several missions with the security agencies that fall under Badreddine’s command and held several posts to keep the security of top figures in the party,” said Solomon, adding, “It can be presumed that Mustafa’s identity has been kept mysterious, as opposed to his brother, to ensure that in the future he will be included in secret missions, such as those carried out by the 910 unit (Hezbollah’s unit in charge of overseas attacks), led by his uncle Mustafa Badreddine.”