Wafic Safa

Since Hezbollah�s boss of external security, Imad Mughniyeh. was assassinated in Damascus on Feb. 12,Wafic Safa has taken on wider powers. Born in 1960 in the village of Zibdin in southern Lebanon, Safa initially joined the Amal movement before changing his allegiance to �Hezbollah� when it was founded in 1982. He then travelled to Iran to follow courses in intelligence and subsequently went on to North Korea in 1990, forming part of a group of �Hezbollah� militants that included Hassan Nasrallah, then a medium-level official in the movement and now its chief. Safa returned to Lebanon in 1994 and quickly found himself working for Mughniyeh. However, he took over as boss of Hezbollah�s internal services in 1998. On May 7 of this year, Safa led the assault of �Hezbollah� fighters against Sunni neighborhoods in Beirut and in the mountains inhabited by Druzes. During the May battle with the latter fighters he lost his right-hand man, Hassan al Bourji. Very close to Nasrallah, Safa nonetheless has enemies within the movement. Among them, Naim Kassem, is particularly powerful as he happens to be the party�s number two man.