Fuad Shukr (; 15 April 1961 – 30 July 2024; sometimes spelled Fouad Shukar and also known by his aliases Al-Hajj Mohsen or Mohsen Shukr) was a Lebanese militant leader who was a senior member of

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's paramil ...

. A member of Hezbollah's founding generation, Shukr was a senior military leader in the organization from the early 1980s. For over four decades, he was one of the group's leading military figures and was a military advisor to its leader

Hassan Nasrallah Hassan Nasrallah ( ar, حسن نصر الله ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel ...

. Shukr was, according to Israeli intelligence, a key figure in the transfer of Iranian guidance systems for Hezbollah's long-range missiles. He was believed to have played a role in the

1983 Beirut barracks bombings Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebane ...

, that killed 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians and two attackers. The

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other natio ...

designated Shukr as a

Specially Designated Global Terrorist A Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) is a person or entity that has been designated as such by the United States Department of State or the US Department of the Treasury. An SDGT designation is made under authority of US Executive Order ...

in 2013. On 30 July 2024, Shukr was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut for his alleged responsibility for the Majdal Shams attack three days earlier, which killed 12 children.

Early life

Shukr was born on 15 April 1961, at the village of

Al-Nabi Shayth Al-Nabi Shayth ( ar, ٱلنَّبِي شَيْت, An-Nabī Shayt, also ''Nabi Chit'' or ''Nabi Sheeth'' ( ar, ٱلنَّبِي شِيْت, An-Nabī Sheeth), literally "The Prophet Seth"), is a village in the Valley of Beqa' and District of Ba'al ...

, in eastern Lebanon, which was also the birthplace of Hezbollah co-founder

Abbas al-Musawi Abbas al-Musawi (; ar, عباس الموسوي; 26 October 1952 – 16 February 1992) was an influential Lebanese Shia cleric, co-founder and Secretary General of Hezbollah. He was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in 1992. Early life ...

. After Hezbollah's establishment, the village became one of its central bases of power. Shukr's house in Al-Nabi Shayth is believed to be the last known location of Ron Arad, an Israeli fighter pilot who went missing in Lebanon in 1986. Shukr received his military education at

Imam Hossein University The Imam Hossein Comprehensive University (also referred to as IHU or Imam Hossein University, fa, دانشگاه امام حسین, ''Dāneshgāh-e Emām Hosein'') is a public university located in Tehran, Iran. The university was opened in 19 ...

in Tehran.

Militant career

From the time of Hezbollah's founding by the

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...

(IRGC) in 1982, Shukr was one of its leading military figures. He was part of the group's founding generation and its most senior military commander, serving as an advisor on military operations to Hezbollah's leader

. The militant organization's top military commander in

southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost distri ...

, he was on the

Jihad Council The Jihad Council of Hezbollah is a council responsible for directing the groups' military and security activities. It also exercises considerable influence over the organization's various civilian branches and maintains ties with external partners ...

, where his role was to serve as an advisor to Hezbollah's leadership on all matters related to military operations, including training with the IRGC's elite

Quds Force The Quds Force ( fa, نیروی قدس, niru-ye qods, Jerusalem Force) is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War ...

. A close associate of Imad Mughniyeh, Mustafa Badreddine, and Mustafa Shahada, Shukr fought against Israeli troops after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Shukr participated in the planning and execution of the

, which resulted in the deaths of 307 people, including 241 U.S. military personnel and 58 French soldiers. Israel accused Shukr of direct involvement in the

2000 Hezbollah cross-border raid The 2000 Hezbollah cross-border raid occurred at the boundary between Lebanon and the Golan Heights (see Blue Line) on October 7. Hezbollah militants captured three Israeli soldiers while they were patrolling the security fence, and subsequ ...

, in which Hezbollah abducted and killed three Israeli soldiers. He was responsible for procuring the group's more advanced weapons arsenal, including precision-guided missiles,

cruise missiles A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhea ...

, antiship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs. According to U.S. intelligence, Shukr was sent to

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

in 1994 to handle a shipment of Stinger missiles from Iran. His prominence grew after Mughniyeh was assassinated in Damascus in 2008. By the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, Shukr was Hezbollah's military commander in southern Lebanon, its most important sector. According to some reports, in 2016, Shukr replaced Badreddine as Hezbollah's military commander, after Badreddine was killed during Hezbollah's intervention in the Syrian Civil War. The

designated Shukr as a

in 2013 and added him to its

Rewards for Justice Program The Rewards for Justice Program (RFJ) is the counterterrorism and counterintelligence platform administered by the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service agency. The Rewards For Justice program is seeking information leading to th ...

(RFJ) on 10 October 2017, offering $5 million for information leading to his arrest. Shukr was added to the RFJ program alongside Hezbollah's head of foreign operations Talal Hamiyah as part of the first rewards for Hezbollah figures in a decade.

Assassination

On 30 July 2024, Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut for his alleged responsibility for the Majdal Shams attack on 27 July that killed 12

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings o ...

children. Before the airstrike, he had received a call asking him to go from his office to his home. Shukr had his office on the second floor, and lived on the seventh floor of the same building. It is believed that the call was made after someone connected to Israel, breached Hezbollah's internal communications network, and saw it would be easier to target him at a higher floor. Hezbollah said that ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' report was "fabricated" and "full of lies". The attack also killed Iranian military adviser Milad Bedi, four civilians and injured 80 others. Shukr's funeral was held on 2 August.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukr, Fuad 1961 births 2024 deaths People from Baalbek District Assassinated Hezbollah members Deaths by Israeli airstrikes Hezbollah members Lebanese Islamists Lebanese Shia Muslims Shia Islamists Targeted killing by Israel Individuals designated as terrorists by the United States government Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List Military personnel killed in the Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present)