Abbas al-Musawi was Hezbollah's Secretary-General from 1991 to 1992. The 2010 opening explained that a new leader was needed partly to facilitate the release of the Western hostages held by Hezbollah. Today's opening is entirely an infobox of Hezbollah officials, and carries no mention of hostages, though the word survives 3 times elsewhere in the article. A reader today does not learn that Hezbollah's own leadership succession was tied to its hostage-taking of Westerners.
Read line by line and written up by hand.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “hostage” appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 3.
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The opening as it read in 2010
He was killed by Israeli forces in 1992. Sayyed al Musawi was born in the village of al-Nabi Shayth in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon , and spent eight years studying theology in a religious school in al-Najaf , Iraq , where he was deeply influenced by the views of Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . He returned to Lebanon in 1978 and in 1982 along with Subhi al-Tufayli spearheaded the formation of Hezbollah movement and militia in the Beqaa Valley , one of the three major areas of Shia population in Lebanon. From 1983-85 he is reported to have served as operational head of the Hezbollah Special Security Apparatus and from late-1985 until April 1988 was head of Hezbollah's military wing, the Islamic Resistance. According to some reports, al-Musawi was responsible for the abduction of Lt. Col William Higgins while commander of Hezbollah's Islamic Resistance, (military wing). , and By 1991 The Hezbollah had entered a new era with the end of the both the Iran–Iraq War and Lebanese Civil War , the Ta'if agreement and the release of the Kuwait 17 bombers. A new leader was thought to be needed to facilitate the release of the Western hostages held by Hezbollah and more importantly to shift Hezbollah's focus to resistance activity against Israel. In May 1991, Hezbollah chose Musawi as its secretary-general . As a former head of both the Security Apparatus (considered the instigator of hostage taking) and the military wing of Hezbollah, Musawi was well qualified. Musawi replaced hard-line Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli and promised Hezbollah would "wipe out every trace of Israel in Palestine," which he called the "the cancer of the Middle East", and would "intensify its military, political and popular action in order to undermine the peace-talks." On February 16, 1992, Israeli helicopters attacked a motorcade in southern Lebanon, killing Musawi, his wife, son, and four others. Israel said the attack had been planned as an assassination attempt. In retaliation, the Islamic Jihad Organization carried out the Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires . Musawi was succeeded as secretary-general of Hezbollah by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah .1
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The opening as it stood in 2015 13 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Abbas al Musawi ( / ə ˈ b ɑː s əl m uː . s ɑː . w iː / ) ; 1952 – 16 February 1992) was an influential Lebanese Shia cleric , co-founder and Secretary General of Hezbollah .He was killed by Israel Defense Forces in 1992.
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The opening as it stood in 2020
Abbas al-Moussawi ( / ə ˈ b ɑː s əl m uː s ɑː w iː / ) ; 26 October 1952 – 16 February 1992) was an influential Lebanese Shia cleric , co-founder and Secretary General of Hezbollah .He was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in 1992.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 964467970.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Lebanese Shia cleric and co-founder of Hezbollah (1952–1992) Abbas al-Musawi ( / ə ˈ b ɑː s əl m uː s ɑː w iː / ; ; 26 October 1952 – 16 February 1992) was an influential Lebanese Shia cleric , a co-founder and Secretary General of Hezbollah . He was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in 1992.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1166039449.
The opening as it stood in 2025 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Secretary-General of Hezbollah from 1991 to 1992 Not to be confused with Abbas Mousavi .
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Today
“hostage” appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 3. Read the current article and compare.
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
