Hezbollah commander killed in Iraq

A Hezbollah commander has died during a mission in Iraq, sources familiar with the incident said on Wednesday, indicating the Lebanese group that is already fighting in Syria's civil war may be involved in a second conflict in the region.

>>Reuters
Published : 31 July 2014, 10:26 AM
Updated : 31 July 2014, 10:26 AM

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shia Islamist group, has not previously announced any role in the conflict in Iraq, which escalated last month when radical Sunni militants seized large areas of territory from the Shia-led government in Baghdad.

Four sources in Lebanon named the Hezbollah commander as Ibrahim al-Haj, a technical specialist involved in training. They said he was "martyred" in a battle near Mosul, a city in northern Iraq seized from government control last month by an al Qaeda offshoot known as the Islamic State.

His funeral was held on Wednesday in the village of Qilya in the Bekaa Valley. A Hezbollah official contacted by Reuters declined to comment.

Hezbollah's deployment in Syria has helped President Bashar al-Assad's government firm up its grip on power by reestablishing control over a strategic corridor of territory stretching .