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Hassan Nasrallah is the current Secretary General of the Lebanese political party group Hezbollah.
Background
Nasrallah was born in the East Beirut neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud in 1960, the eldest of nine children. In 1975, the Lebanese Civil War forced his family to return to their ancestral home in the South Lebanese village Bassouriyeh where Nasrallah joined the Amal movement, a political and paramilitary organization representing Shi'a in Lebanon.
From south Lebanon, young Nasrallah then moved to Najaf, Iraq to study at Shi'a seminary. In 1978, Nasrallah and other radical Shi'a clerics and students were forced to leave Iraq and return to Lebanon. There, Nasrallah studied and taught at Amal leader Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi's school. In 1982, after the Israeli invasion, Nasrallah followed Musawi out of Amal and into an umbrella organization of radical Iranian and Lebanese called Hezbollah.
Leadership of Hezbollah
Following Israel's military killing of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Musawi, his wife, and 3 year old daughter by helicopter fired Hellfire missiles in February of 1992, Nasrallah was asked to take over Hezbollah at the request of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah became a serious opponent of the Israel Defense Forces in Southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah attacks on the IDF were an important factor in Israel's decision to leave Lebanon in May 2000.
More recently, Nasrallah completed a complex exchange of prisoners with Israel resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Hezbollah militants being freed and bodies of militants returned to Lebanon.
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