(1960 - ) A Lebanese Shi'a cleric, paramilitary leader and politician. He is the current Secretary-General of
Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi'a political party with a militant wing. Born in 1960 in Southern Beirut, Nasrallah studied the Qur'an and politics in Iraq before the Saddam Hussein regime expelled him and other Shi'a clerics in 1978. Nasrallah ascended the ranks of Hezbollah after its inception in 1982, and became its leader in 1992 after the
Israeli military killed Abbas Moussawi. Nasrallah is credited with the dramatic rise to power of Hezbollah in Lebanon's political and social life in recent years. See "
Profile: Hassan Nasrallah," Eben Kaplan, Council on Foreign Relations, August 11 2010.