Who is Abu Ali Tabtabai, a top Hezbollah commander in Syria?

PARIS — On September 29, one day after Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was confirmed killed in a massive Israeli strike in Beirut, the Secretary-General of the Arab Islamic Council in Lebanon, Muhammad Ali al-Husseini, appeared on the Saudi state-owned Al-Arabiya channel with a warning. 

Al-Husseini directly addressed two senior Hezbollah figures in Syria, who he named as Abu Ali Tabtabai and Hashim Hashim, warning them they risked a similar fate if they remained at their posts. 

Al-Husseini, a Shiite cleric and former member of Hezbollah who is critical of the group’s relationship with Iran, had cautioned Nasrallah similarly hours before his assassination, saying: “I know that you have become the primary target today, so write your will.”

Hezbollah forces have been active in Syria for years since intervening in support of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following the 2011 revolution. As Israel escalates its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, its members and commanders are in the crosshairs—on both sides of the border. 

Who is Abu Ali Tabtabai? 

Haitham Ali Tabtabai, also known as Abu Ali Tabtabai, was born in 1968 to an Iranian father and south Lebanese mother. He spent his childhood in the south, before joining Hezbollah in his youth and rising through the ranks to head its Intervention Force. 

Tabtabai led the Intervention Force until it was merged with Hezbollah special forces and renamed the Radwan Force in 2008. The special operations unit was named for Imad Mughniya, also known as al-Hajj Radwan, who founded it and was assassinated by Israel in the Syrian capital Damascus on February 12, 2008. 

Hezbollah and its affiliated media are secretive about the group’s leaders, including Tabtabai, who is believed to be the field commander of the Radwan Force in Syria. In past years, he oversaw major Hezbollah operations in both Yemen and Syria, where his forces provided direct support to regime forces in Daraa, the Qalamoun, Qusayr and beyond. 

Tabtabai’s name emerged in the media in 2015, when he was targeted by an Israeli assassination attempt in Quneitra city, on the border with the occupied Golan Heights. An airstrike targeted a convoy of vehicles he was in, killing Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and six members of Lebanese Hezbollah—including Jihad Imad Mughniyeh, the son of the Radwan Force’s founder. Tabtabai survived. 

On October 26, 2016, the United States (US) State Department designated Tabtabai a “global terrorist” pursuant to Executive Order 13224, sanctioning him and barring any US entity from engaging in transactions with him. In 2020, the State Department offered a financial reward of up to $5 million for information on Tabtabai, pointing to his leading role in Syria, Yemen and what it called Hezbollah’s “destabilizing regional activities.” 

An Arabic-language handout from the US State Department offers a financial reward for information about Hezbollah Radwan Forces leader Haitham Ali Tabtabai, 2020 (State Department)

Radwan Force

The Radwan Force was founded by Imad Mughniyeh in the wake of the 2006 Lebanon war. As Hezbollah’s most elite unit, it carries out special domestic and regional missions and is known for its combat and rapid deployment capabilities. It has worked alongside the party’s allies in Yemen and Syria, alongside its main functions in Lebanon. 

On September 20, the Israeli military announced the assassination of the Radwan Force’s commander, Ibrahim Aqil, alongside other senior commanders in a strike in Beirut. Aqil also served on the group’s Jihad Council, overseeing military operations. The strike that killed him, while in an underground meeting in Beirut’s southern suburbs, brought down the buildings above, killing and injuring dozens, including civilians. 

Members of the Radwan Force have also been targeted by several Israeli airstrikes inside Syria in recent months. In July, Israeli warplanes struck a joint position held by the Radwan force and pro-Iranian Liwa Imam al-Hussein militia in the Qusayr area of the Homs countryside along the Syrian-Lebanese border. 

Tel Aviv has carried out at least 75 airstrikes inside Syria since the start of the year. 

After days of major blows in Lebanon—Israeli attacks carried out by detonating handheld communication devices carried by Hezbollah leaders and members on September 17 and 18, followed by the Aqil’s assassination two days later—Syrian opposition media reported that Hezbollah recalled some of its members from Syria, including the Radwan Force. These forces were deployed in al-Qusayr, Zabadani, Saraqeb, the Syrian Badia, Aleppo and parts of Daraa and Quneitra provinces. 

Hezbollah has not disclosed its recent movements in Syria. However, Deir e-Zor 24, a local opposition media network in the eastern province, reported on September 29 that four Hezbollah military commanders arrived at the Deir e-Zor Military Airport by helicopter from the Shayrat Airbase in Homs. 

Israel continues to carry out strikes in Syria, bombing the Mezzeh area west of Damascus at dawn on Tuesday and killing three people. Only one of the dead, Syrian state television presenter Safaa Ahmad, has been publicly identified. Tel Aviv struck targets in the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra later the same day. 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.