First Saudi citizen killed while 'fighting for Hezbollah' against Israel in Lebanon

A Saudi man was among dozens killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the weekend, according to local media, reportedly the first national from the Gulf state killed amid Hezbollah's ongoing war with Israel.

Omran Karim, from the Shia-majority city of Qatif on Saudi Arabia's eastern coast, was reportedly killed while fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, according to tributes made to him on social media sites, the Lebanese French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour reported.

The details of the strike that killed him were not immediately available.

Karim lived in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh suburb, where worked as a dentist, the L'Orient-Le Jour report said.

He was reportedly the son of Ahmad Ibrahim al-Moughassil, also known as "Abu Omran", the presumed "head" of Hezbollah's branch in Saudi Arabia and the alleged mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia which killed 19 US soldiers.

In 2001, al-Moughassil was designated a "terrorist" by the US State Department and placed on the FBI’s "Most Wanted Terrorists" list. He was arrested in Beirut by Saudi intelligence services in 2015 and extradited to the kingdom.

In 2016, Karim praised his mother for being married to a man "wanted by the House of Saud" and "by the CIA and Interpol", who was then "on death row", L'Orient-Le Jour reported.

The New Arab has contacted the Saudi embassy in London for comment.

While there is no verified information confirming the active involvement of foreign recruits in Hezbollah's ranks during its war with Israel, thousands of mostly Shia fighters had expressed readiness to join the group's ranks.

Hezbollah's leadership has stated that they have not accepted these offers, citing an already substantial number of fighters.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border attacks since 8 October 2023, in what the Lebanese group says was a "support front" to Palestinians in Gaza, where over 43,600 people - mostly civilians - have been killed by Israel's brutal offensive on the besieged enclave.

Israel expanded its war on Lebanon in September and had been attempting a ground invasion in the south since last month.

Its war on Lebanon has killed over 3,186 people and wounded over 14,078 others, according to Lebanon's health ministry.