Terrorist Organization: Hezbollah;

Status: Commander of Hezbollah’s strategy in Syria aka “Golan portfolio” – very trained units in the Golan heights in Syria on the border with Israel ready for combat parallel to the units in Lebanon;

Role: Daqduq had few command positions in Hezbollah’s special units, including the coordinator of Nasrallah’s personal security. In 2005 -2006 he went to Iran to train Iran-backed militants to attack U.S. forces in Iraq. The United States accuses Daqduq of orchestrating a January 20, 2007, attack on U.S. troops in Karbala, Iraq, that killed five. Daqduq was imprisoned in Iraq for his role in the attack but was freed in 2012.

He still has a lot of influence in the region of Lebanon – Syria – Iraq;

Location: Lebanon, Syria;

Alleged to be a member of: Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq; Hezbollah;

Also Known As: Abu Hussein Sajed; Ali Mussa Daqduq al-Musawi; Hamid Muhammad Jabur al-Lami; Husayn Muhammad Jabur al-Musui;

Date of Birth: 9 August 1969;

Place of Birth: Lebanon;

Activities:
Ali Mussa Daqduq (Arabic: علي موسى دقدوق) is a senior Hezbollah leader and senior advisor to Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais al-Khazali. He was captured by US troops in Basra, Iraq on 20 March 2007 along with Qais al-Khazali and his brother Laith al-Khazali. He is alleged to have participated in a 20 January 2007 attack killing five US troops in Karbala, Iraq. Later, in 2012, two Iraqi courts found him not guilty of masterminding the 2007 raid on an American military base and released him from prison. US Intelligence has alleged that Daqduq’s testimony during his internment is key evidence for collaboration between Iran and Hezbollah.

On 2 July 2007 US forces identified that they had captured Daqduq. They asserted he was a member of Hezbollah, and was operating with support from Iran. The 2 July press briefing published images of Daqduq’s forged identity documents. Iranian officials denied that assertion on 4 July 2007. Daqduq pretended to be deaf and mute when he was captured, and refused to speak for weeks.

In November 2011 Reuters reported that the US was negotiating with the Iraqi government to hold Daqduq in US custody after the US pulls out of Iraq in December 2011. An agreement could not be reached, and Daqduq was transferred to Iraqi custody on 18 December 2011.

On 7 May 2012, Iraq dismissed terrorism and false documents charges against Daqduq. The case was automatically appealed, and he remained imprisoned until the case was heard in superior court. The United States believed that releasing him was a very bad idea, that the evidence is clear, and that he was likely to commit more acts of resistance against US occupation forces if released. Officials in the military commissions system in the United States began procedures to charge Daqduq with war crimes (specifically, that he killed or ordered killed four US soldiers captured during a raid); the future of this is unclear.

On 16 November 2012, Daqduq was released from Iraqi custody as the Iraqi government determined that it no longer had a legal basis to hold him.

On 13 March 2019, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus accused Daqduq of having come back to Lebanon and then Syria, and founding a Hezbollah-operated network of “a few” Syrian operatives manning outposts in the Golan Heights border village of Hader, Syria and collecting intelligence against Israeli targets. The accusation included video footage of men walking to and from the outposts.

The military network in the Syrian Golan Heights is headed by a senior Hezbollah operative, Ali Mussa Abbas Daqduq, codenamed Abu Hussein Sajed, from the village of Ayta al-Sha’ab in southern Lebanon. Starting in 1983, he held a series of operational positions in the fighting against the IDF in southern Lebanon and then in the security zone. In 1988-1990, he participated in the internal Lebanese power struggles. In 2006, he was sent to Iraq to assist the Shiite militias in their fighting against the US army and the coalition countries. He was captured by the Americans, imprisoned, handed over to the Iraqi administration, released and returned to Lebanon (where he returned to routine military activity in Hezbollah). According to the IDF spokesman’s report, after his return, he was placed in charge of the training of Hezbollah’s Special Forces until 2018, when he was appointed commander of the “Golan Portfolio.” He carries out his position as commander of the Hezbollah network in the Syrian Golan Heights from Beirut while at the same time, an operational headquarters in Damascus handles the network operatives on the Golan Heights front mainly by intelligence collection (IDF Spokesman’s website, March 13, 2019);

Ali Mussa Daqduq, as well as other Hezbollah operatives, were handled in Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force in missions of military support of the Shiite militias who carried out guerrilla warfare against the US army and the coalition countries. As part of this activity, Daqduq assisted in establishing “special groups” of Shiite operatives who were trained by Iran in activating sophisticated IEDs which inflicted many losses on the American forces in Iraq. Ali Daqduq took part in the activity of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH, “the League of the Righteous”). Among other operations, he participated in an attack against a provincial headquarters in Karbala, in which five American soldiers were killed. Ali Daqduq was placed in charge of Hezbollah’s military network in the Syrian Golan Heights not only because of his professional capabilities and his close relations with Hezbollah’s leadership but also due to the vast experience he acquired during his presence in Iraq. This experience which, in the ITIC’s assessment, Hezbollah seeks to duplicate against Israel, finds its expression in his close relations with the Qods Force and its commander Qassem Soleimani and his handling local proxies to promote the interests of Iran and Hezbollah.