Hollowing Out

If this is true it’s a serious problem for Hezbollah:

Lebanon’s health minister, Firas Abiad, said the number of people killed in the Friday strike had risen to at least 37, including three children and seven women. At least 68 more people were wounded, he said.

Hezbollah released a list of names of members who had been killed, including the leader of its elite Radwan force, Ahmed Wahbi. A day earlier, Hezbollah confirmed the death of the founder of the force, Ibrahim Aqeel, who had been overseeing its operations against Israel. He was long wanted by the United States for his role in two bombing attacks in 1983 that killed more than 350 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks.

The airstrike was the latest in a string of apparent Israeli attacks against the Iran-backed group this week, operations that have yet again stoked the risk of escalation. The region is awaiting signs of how Hezbollah, Iran’s most important regional ally, might respond.

In just a few days Israel seems to have managed to completely gut Hezbollah’s leadership while at the same time crushing its information economy- the ability of the organization to acquire, process, and disseminate information internally. If I were a Hezbollah operative at this point I would reflexively refuse to speak with any co-workers or with anyone who I thought might potentially be associated with a co-worker. Seems an open question at this point whether this series of attacks is intended as a prelude to a broader military operation against Hezbollah or whether it’s simply intended to set back the organization’s offensive capabilities for an extended period of time.