Hezbollah says senior leader killed in airstrike in Syria

Samir Kuntar.
(Image credit: Handout/Getty Images)

A Hezbollah leader who spent three decades in an Israeli prison was killed Saturday in an airstrike in Syria, the Lebanese militant group announced Sunday.

In 2008, Samir Kuntar was released from prison in exchange for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in 2006; he was sentenced to three life sentences for his role in the murders of three Israelis — a police officer, a father, and his young daughter — in 1979. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV station in Lebanon said four Israeli missiles hit a residential building in Jaramana, outside of Damascus, killing Kuntar and at least eight others, The Washington Post reports. Officials in Israel have not confirmed or denied being behind the airstrike, but opposition leader Isaac Herzog tweeted that Kuntar "was a terrorist who refused to abandon the path of murder and terror. The region is safer without him."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.