IDF identifies Iranian officers behind Hezbollah’s secret missile project

Israel has released information on senior Iranian and Hezbollah militants involved in the terror group’s precision missile project in Lebanon.

The group, which has been working on the expensive and classified project since 2013, has been attempting to build factories to produce precision missiles in South Lebanon, Beirut and the Bekaa under the guidance of senior Iranian officers.

The Iranian officers have been identified as Brig. Gen. Muhammad Hussein-Zada Hejazi, Col. Majid Nuab,Brig. Gen. Ali Asrar Nuruzi.

Hejazi is the Lebanon Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qud’s Force,  responsible for all Iranian activities in the country and in charge of the precision guided missile program. He operates directly under the command of Quds Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Nuab, an engineer who specializes in surface-to-surface missiles is the technological manager of the project. He actively manages and oversees the precision missile sites in Lebanon.  Nuruzi is the Chief Logistic Officer of the IRGC and is in charge of transferring logistical components and equipment from Iran through Syria to the project sites in Lebanon.

Senior Hezbollah militant Fu’ad Shukr, a senior military advisor to Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and member of the group’s highest military body the Jihad Council, is the main Hezbollah militant involved in the project.

A Hezbollah member for over 30 years, he reportedly replaced Mustafa Badreddine after he was killed in 2016, is wanted by the US government for his role in planning and executing the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing which killed 307 people.

The IDF in the past few months noticed an increase in attempts by the group to import Iranian-made components for the project which would have allowed the group to accurately strike within 10 meters of its intended target.

Hezbollah has over 130,000 rockets and missiles of all sorts of ranges and payloads and while the group has been working on this project since 2013, they have only several dozens precision missiles.

The terror group first tried to bring in ready-to-use precision missiles from Iran to Lebanon overland via Syria. But when the majority of those attempts were thwarted by alleged Israeli airstrikes, Hezbollah decided in 2016 to take “dumb” missiles from Syria and upgrade them to precision missiles. 

But continued airstrikes forced the group to move their project to Lebanon, where Israel has not acted since 2006.

The move by the group was nevertheless noticed by the Intelligence Directorate of the IDF three years ago, and over the years there were leaks to the media and speeches by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon in an attempt to push the international community to act.

In mid-July Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon warned that Israeli intelligence had uncovered evidence showing that Iran had been smuggling equipment for the project by sea into the port of Beirut since last year.

Israel’s PM Netanyahu warned in December that the Lebanese Shiite group has been trying to build an infrastructure to convert ground-to-ground missiles to precision missiles near the city’s port and Hariri International Airport.

And last October, Fox News reported that GPS components which can be installed on unguided rockets were being flown into Beirut’s Hariri International Airport on civilian airliners.

Israel, which continues to monitor those sites with a variety of capabilities noticed that  Iran began moving production material to Lebanon by land through the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, by sea and by air in an attempt to place Hezbollah’s missile arsenal on another level.

There are other sites in Beirut and elsewhere in which Hezbollah operatives are working in a similar attempt to establish infrastructures that will be designated for future storage and conversion of precision missiles.

Nevertheless, Hezbollah has been unable to build operational factories to produce precision missiles for use against the Jewish State.

While the Lebanese government including Prime Minister Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun, are unaware of the project, the inability to stop a non-state military project by Hezbollah on their territory, the IDF sees them as responsible for any attacks against Israel.

Early Saturday, a central component of the group’s project was hit in an alleged Israeli drone in the heart of the group’s stronghold of Dahiyeh.

The alleged attack on Saturday, which marked the first such “hostile action” by Israel in Lebanon since the 2006 Second Lebanese War, was carried out by two armed drones allegedly carrying 5.5 kilos of C4 explosives each, seriously damaged an industrial-sized planetary mixer which is needed to create propellants to improve the engine and accuracy of missiles.

It was hit before it was moved to a secure site in the Bekaa Valley.

The tailor-made Iranian mixer which is one of the key parts of precision missile technology was seriously damaged and the computerized control mechanism which was in a separate crate was totally destroyed in the blast.

Had the mixer become operational it would have allowed Hezbollah to produce large quantities of precision-guided long-range missiles which would pose a serious threat to Israel.