Hezbollah member assassinated in south Lebanon: Officials

Two Lebanese security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that Ali Mohammed Younes was found dead next to his car near the city of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon on Saturday evening.

One of the security officials said Younes was shot with four bullets in the chest and had at least two stab wounds. They added that an investigation has been launched into the incident. 

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that a suspect was arrested shortly after the killing on Saturday. 

Younes was reportedly in charge of tracking collaborators with Israel, and spies. Hezbollah published an obituary of Younes describing him as a martyr, in reference that he was killed by Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

The assassination followed the smuggling of Amer al-Fakhoury, an Israeli operative, by the US military out of Lebanon. The move was condemned by Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last month as clear violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Nasrallah: US violated Lebanon sovereignty by smuggling Israeli operative out Nasrallah says Hezbollah movement was not aware of al-Fakhoury

Al-Fakhoury, a former member of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army (SLA), was also the former head of the infamous Khiam Prison, which was opened in 1984 by the SLA after Israel created a security zone in southern Lebanon.

Former prisoners have accused al-Fakhoury of ordering the torture of thousands of detainees in Khiam prison before Israel withdrew its forces from Lebanon in 2000, ending 22-year occupation of the southern part of the country.

Nasrallah also rejected claims that Hezbollah had agreed to al-Fakhoury’s release, saying “those who insist on blaming Hezbollah for the release of al-Fakhoury are playing the enemy’s game.”