Top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine is dead

BEIRUT (AP) — Hashem Safieddine, a strongman who rose through the ranks of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah over decades to become the second-most powerful person within the organization, has died. Safieddine, who was about 60, was killed in early October in a series of Israeli airstrikes in a southern suburb of Beirut that shook much of the Lebanese capital, part of Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah. Israel said Tuesday that Safieddine had been killed in the strikes; Hezbollah confirmed the death Wednesday. Safieddine’s death came as he was widely expected to be elected the group’s next leader after the death of Hassan Nasrallah, one of its founders.Safieddine, Nasrallah’s maternal cousin, had spent years preparing for the position — but the announcement was slow in coming following the Sept. 27 airstrike in the Beirut suburbs that killed Nasrallah, part of a series of blows dealt by Israel that had left…