At around 60 years old, Safieddine was seen as the second-most powerful figure within Hezbollah and a likely successor to the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who also died in an earlier Israeli strike.

Hashem Safieddine, a strongman who rose through the ranks of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah over decades to become the second-most powerful person within the organization, has died.

Hashem Safieddine, whose killing was confirmed by Hezbollah on Wednesday, briefly helped run Lebanon's strongest military and political force as the presumed successor to its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah,