19 Facts About Khalid Bazzi

Khalid Ahmad Bazzi was a Lebanese military commander who was the commander of Hezbollah's military wing, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon.

Khalid Bazzi joined Hezbollah as a teenager, and fought against the Israelis in the South Lebanon conflict in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon.

Khalid Bazzi was thirteen years old in 1982 when the 1982 Lebanon War broke out and his hometown was occupied by Israel for the third time in his lifetime.

Several of Khalid Bazzi's friends were arrested and taken to the notorious Khiam detention center.

Khalid Bazzi himself fled his home one night and slipped out of the security zone.

Khalid Bazzi went to Beirut and started studying at the university.

Khalid Bazzi soon dropped out of school and became a full-time activist in the resistance.

Khalid Bazzi was involved in the planting of deadly road side bombs, such as in the villages of Houla, Markaba and al-Abbad in the 1990s.

Khalid Bazzi took part in the assassination of several high-ranking South Lebanon Army officers, whom Hezbollah considered traitors, including Aql Hashem, the SLA Second-in Command, who was killed by a remote-controlled bomb in January 2000.

Khalid Bazzi took part in the Ghajar raid in 2005, when four Hezbollah fighters were killed in an attempt to abduct an Israeli soldier.

Khalid Bazzi organized the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid, in which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two were abducted, which ultimately triggered the 2006 Lebanon War.

Khalid Bazzi commanded a force of approximately 140 fighters, spread out in the area.

Khalid Bazzi emerged however unscathed and continued to lead the defense from Bint Jbeil.

Khalid Bazzi was succeeded as sector commander by Muhammad Qanso, a Hezbollah special forces commander who himself would be killed in an Israeli airstrike 10 days later.

The battles led by Khalid Bazzi were considered the most crucial in the Lebanon War of 2006.

Surprisingly, Israel seemed long to have been unaware of the significant role, Khalid Bazzi played both in the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers and in the battle of Bint Jbeil and of his death in this battle.

Khalid Bazzi was buried in the Martyrs' cemetery in Bint Jbeil.

Khalid Bazzi was survived by his wife and three children, Zaynab, Muhammad and Ali.

Khalid Bazzi's family has reportedly had to change homes 14 times in the past 18 years due to security considerations.