Who was Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader killed in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon?

Longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, the Lebanese militant group confirmed Saturday.

Hezbollah said in a statement, “His eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary-general, had joined his fellow great martyrs whom he had led for 30 years from one victory to another,” according to the Associated Press. The statement also said Nasrallah “fell as a martyr on the road to Jerusalem," and Hezbollah vowed to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”

Israel targeted Hezbollah leaders Friday in an airstrike on Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. The Israeli military targeted Hezbollah’s headquarters with massive explosions that leveled multiple apartment buildings. The attack also killed other commanders of Hezbollah, including Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah's southern front, Israel Defense Forces claimed.

Iranian state media reported on Saturday that Abbas Nilforushan, a prominent general in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, died in the same airstrike.

President Biden said in a statement that Nasrallah's death "is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians." He said that Hezbollah and its leader "were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror" and that the U.S. "fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups."

The State Department has ordered some employees at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and eligible members of their families to leave Lebanon on Saturday. “Due to the increased volatility following airstrikes within Beirut and the volatile and unpredictable security situation throughout Lebanon, the U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the department added.

Who was Hasan Nasrallah?

Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has led the group since 1992, after his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi was assassinated by Israel. The 64-year-old was seen as a charismatic leader, though he has rarely appeared in public since the 2006 Lebanon War due to fears of assassination attempts by Israel. In recent years, he gave speeches through a satellite link.

Nasrallah was “viewed as an extremist in the U.S. and much of the West, as well as in some oil-rich Gulf Arab countries,” AP reports. “He was also considered a pragmatist compared with the firebrand militants who dominated Hezbollah after its founding in 1982 during Lebanon's civil war.”

Nasrallah gave Hezbollah significant political influence in Lebanon over the years and was a key player in shifting powers of the Middle East. In 2000, Nasrallah led Hezbollah's armed resistance, forcing Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon after an 18-year occupation. Nasrallah also committed Hezbollah to support Syrian President Bashar Assad regime’s in the Syrian Civil War in 2011, playing a key role in Assad keeping power in the region.

Read more on Nasrallah's death:

• Politico: The U.S. is glad Nasrallah is gone but is bracing for more violence

• Reuters: Iran's Khamenei vows revenge over Nasrallah's killing

• AFP: Hashem Safieddine is a possible successor to Hezbollah chief Nasrallah

What led to this attack?

Earlier this month, pagers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded in Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding 3,000 others, including many civilians. Lebanon blamed Israel, which did not take responsibility for orchestrating the attack. Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israel.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, has aligned itself with Hamas in the Israel-Hamas war and has fired missiles into northern Israel over the course of the nearly yearlong conflict in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations on Friday morning, during a visit to the U.S., that Israel’s campaign against the military organization would continue, despite hopes for a ceasefire. Earlier this week, Netanyahu warned Lebanese civilians to evacuate their homes ahead of a larger air campaign from the Israeli military.

Fears of a wider war in the Middle East

The recent attacks in Beirut have renewed fears that mounting tensions between Israel and Hezbollah could explode into a full-scale war of its own.

CNN reported on Wednesday that dozens of U.S. troops deployed to Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean that helped foreign nationals evacuate Lebanon during the war in 2006, amid fears of the war escalating.

“In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said. “But for operational security reasons, I’m not going to comment on or provide specifics.”