By Nohad Topalian | 2024-12-03

BEIRUT -- Lebanese politicians and family members of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri have welcomed the news that his assassin may have been killed in an early November airstrike in Syria.

Hizbullah operative Salim Ayyash, convicted in August 2020 for his role in the February 2005 assassination, was killed in Syria's Qusayr or the Sayyidah Zainab area of Damascus, according to Arab media outlets.

The areas are strongholds of Hizbullah and other Iran-aligned militas.

Ayyash was handed a life sentence in absentia by the United Nations backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon for his role in the suicide bombing that killed al-Hariri and 21 others.

Ayyash served as a key operative in Hizbullah's secretive Unit 121, which carried out assassinations of party opponents under Nasrallah's direct orders.

The tribunal found that Ayyash led the "assassination team" that carried out the attack on al-Hariri and was actively involved in the assassination on the day of the attack.

Co-defendants Hussein Oneissi, Assad Sabra and Hassan Merhi also were convicted by the tribunal, while proceedings against Mustafa Badreddine ended after his 2016 death in Syria.

Then-Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a September strike, had refused to surrender the defendants, calling them "saints" and vowing never to hand them over, "not even after 300 years."

The US State Department had offered a $10 million reward for Ayyash's capture in March 2021.

'Justice took course'

The slain prime minister's son, Bahaa al-Hariri, responded to news of Ayyash's death in a post on X.

"Justice has taken its natural course by bringing retribution to the killer and his leadership," he wrote, noting the assassin acted "under the orders of the senior leadership in Hizbullah."

Former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri had predicted this outcome in February 2023, stating, "I promise the killer that he will be killed, even after a while... whoever killed Rafik al-Hariri will pay the price."

Leaders of the Future Movement political party said they viewed the killing as divine justice, though they would have preferred to see legal proceedings.

"We would have preferred for him to remain alive so that the international court would try him in person," former Lebanese MP Mohammad al-Hajjar told Al-Fassel.

"We believe in the judgment of our Lord, although nothing can heal our pain after the assassination of Prime Minister [Rafik] al-Hariri," a prominent Future Movement leader told Al-Fassel, on condition of anonymity.

"We refused to avenge his blood to prevent strife, and we placed his assassination in the hands of the international tribunal because we trust its judgment," he added.