Relentless. Unremitting. Unsparing.

The IDF and Mossad on Friday dealt still another grievous blow to Hassan Nasrallah, who lost Ibrahim Aqil to a precision strike targeting an underground meeting facility in Beirut.

Aqil, like Fuad Shukr, was wanted by the US in connection with the October 1983 barracks bombing which killed more than 200 US servicemembers in one the deadliest days for the US Marine Corps since World War II. Shukr, you’re reminded, was blown apart by the IDF two months ago, leaving his portfolio to Aqil.

This is another instance where it’s virtually impossible to overstate the significance of the loss incurred. Aqil founded the Radwan Force, the elite unit trained and consolidated by the Quds. They’re commandos. The closest thing Hezbollah has to spec ops.

According to Daniel Hagari, Aqil was killed with “at least” nine other high-ranking Radwan commanders, including Ahmed Wahbi, who were planning an October 7-style attack on Galilee, which they intended to raid and occupy. Aqil had “a great deal of blood on his hands,” Hagari said. As a man with red hands himself, Hagari would know.

Aqil’s death marked a calamitous end to a humiliating week for Hezbollah, which lost dozens of members and affiliates to an audacious Mossad bombing operation involving the simultaneous detonation of tiny explosives hidden in thousands of compromised pagers and walkie talkies.

Israel was reportedly able to track Aqil after seeing him leave the hospital where he was treated for injuries related to an exploded pager.

For context, the Radwan’s predecessor organization was behind the ambush and kidnappings which sparked the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

In the fight to restore Bashar al-Assad to power during Syria’s civil war, the Radwan fought alongside Quds trainers, the Wagner Group and Tehran-loyal militia based out of Iraq, including Harakat al-Nujaba, which lost a top commander to a US drone strike in Baghdad earlier this year. In January, Israel targeted Wissam Al-Tawil, another high-ranking Radwan photographed repeatedly with Qassem Soleimani himself.

I’m going to recycle some language from two previous articles because it really is critical to understand what’s happening here. The people Iran’s losing in this fight aren’t replaceable. They’re not random jihadists. Westerners don’t generally get the distinction, but there’s a difference between Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” and the kind of causeless lunatics who fall in with Wahhabi fanatics harboring delusions of the end times.

Iran’s proxies are well organized, well trained and purpose driven, and no more so than Hezbollah. To kill a commander or a facilitator is to leave a void. In many instances, these men define their positions. Once someone like Aqil — or Shukr, or Saleh al-Arouri, or Seyed Razi Mousavi, or Sadegh Omidzade — is gone, their role in some cases ceases to exist.

Crucially — and this is the key to the whole thing — every, single one of these people is (or was) part of the machine that Soleimani built. As one academic who spoke to The Guardian in April put it, “The IRGC is still reliant on one man and his networks. It cannot function independently of them.” Israel is dismantling those networks.

In the course of the Radwan’s heavy involvement in Syria’s civil war, Aqil surely cultivated a relationship with the Russian military. Suffice to say Moscow won’t be pleased to hear of his demise. (Soleimani was a friend of Vladimir Putin’s directly.)

I don’t know where Nasrallah goes from here. To meet Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis if he’s not careful. Because I can assure you: Israel knows where Nasrallah is. Or at least has a very good idea. The IDF apparently still thinks killing him isn’t yet a risk worth taking, but if this week’s events in Lebanon are any indication, the Israelis are going for the jugular.

In 2023, the US State Department put a $7 million bounty on Aqil. “Yes, hello? Is this Rewards for Justice? I have information on the whereabouts of Ibrahim Aqil.” “Ok, let’s start with your name, sir.” “Sure. First name is ‘Benjamin.’ Last name ‘Netanyahu.’ That’s ‘n,’ ‘e,’ ‘t’ — actually, just call me ‘Bibi.'”