Hezbollah cleric Naim Kassem picked to lead the Lebanese militant group

Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah says it has chosen cleric Naim Kassem to lead the Lebanese militant group after the killing of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb in late September. The group said in a statement on Tuesday that Hezbollah’s decision-making Shura Council elected 71-year-old Kassem as its new secretary-general and vowed to continue Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.” Since Nasrallah’s death, as part of an Israeli offensive that took out many of Hezbollah’s senior officials, the white-turbaned cleric with a gray beard has often been the public face of the Lebanese militant group. He is one of Hezbollah’s founding members but is widely seen as lacking his predecessor’s oratory skills.