A leadership chart of the IRGC-QF’s Unit 840 published by the IDF.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) eliminated Wissam Saeed Jubai on September 11 in Ain Baal, a village in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon. The IDF’s Persian-language account described Jubai as a member of both Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Jubai’s affiliation with the IRGC was through its Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the branch responsible for Tehran’s extraterritorial operations, specifically via the Imam Hussein Brigade, a militia formerly active in Syria at Tehran’s behest.
According to the IDF, Jubai played a key role in advanced arms purchase deals, participated in missile and rocket launch routes toward Israel during Operation Northern Arrows, and oversaw reconstruction efforts for Hezbollah units after the conflict.
Operation Northern Arrows, launched in September 2024, was Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. It combined airstrikes, artillery strikes, and limited ground incursions in an effort to cripple Hezbollah’s rocket launch sites, command hubs, and military infrastructure along the border.
Rumors circulating on social media claim that an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut on the same day killed Abu Ali Tabatabai, the commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, along with two senior IRGC figures, Hassan Maleki and Ebrahim Yousefi, while also alleging that Radwan deputy commander Reza Abomoghami was seriously wounded. However, these reports have not been independently confirmed.
The strike appeared to be part of Israel’s renewed wave of operations against Tehran’s proxies in Lebanon and Syria. On September 11, the IDF said that it struck a Hezbollah “strategic weapons” manufacturing and storage site in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, a base it has targeted several times previously, while also hitting Hezbollah infrastructure in the southern town of Zrariyeh. The next day, Lebanese media claimed that an Israeli drone struck a car in Aita al Jabal, with casualties unconfirmed, and “Israeli forces reportedly demolished a home” in Mays al Jabal, publishing footage after troops withdrew.
A week earlier, Israeli jets carried out 12 strikes in the Beqaa Valley, killing at least five people at Radwan Force compounds where operatives were gathered and weapons stored. The IDF said the sites were used to plot attacks against Israel in violation of understandings with Lebanon.
Following the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, Tehran is seeking new routes to channel funds and weapons to sustain Hezbollah. The Saudi-affiliated daily Asharq al Awsat reported on September 4 that Iran asked a senior Iraqi official to facilitate the transfer of large cash shipments from Syria to Hezbollah through the Al Qaim border crossing in western Iraq, but the request was rejected. The official said Baghdad refused due to political and security complications, including US monitoring, and noted that Iran intended to move the money inside Syria using smuggling networks.
IDF details past campaigns against Qods Force Unit 840 in Syria
A September 12 IDF press release revealed a campaign against Unit 840 of the IRGC-QF across Syria in recent months. The statement noted that Unit 840 field operatives Zidan al Tuwail and Muhammad al Kharyan were apprehended in spring 2025, and several others belonging to a wider support network had been arrested more recently.
“Unit 840 is responsible for advancing and remotely directing acts of terrorism against Israelis and Jews in Israel and abroad,” the statement added. The unit drew headlines earlier in 2025 for its growing involvement in overseas assassination plots targeting Westerners, Israelis, and Iranian dissidents, with its senior leadership reportedly overseeing new operations in Europe.
The IDF release also noted that many of those detained were unaware of their true ties to Unit 840, having been recruited under false pretenses or bribed with financial incentives. The statement identified Asghar Bakir as the unit’s commander and Mohammad Reza Ansari as his deputy, also highlighting that Unit 840’s networks span Iranian, Syrian, and Lebanese operatives.