Hezbollah today accused Israel of “assassinating” one of its senior commanders outside his home in Beirut.
Hussein al-Laqis was shot dead by assailants who opened fire with an assault rifle while he was in his car, a Lebanese official said.
Hezbollah said Israel had tried to kill him several times before. Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied Israeli involvement. The Lebanese Shia Muslim militant group described al-Laqis as one of its founding members, suggesting he was a high-level commander close to the party’s leadership. The Lebanese state news agency published a photograph it identified as al-Laqis. The image showed a man in his mid-forties, wearing beige and khaki military clothing.
Hezbollah said: “The Israeli enemy is naturally directly to blame. This enemy must shoulder complete responsibility and repercussions for this ugly crime and its repeated targeting of leaders and cadres of the resistance.”
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has been fighting alongside Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces in that country’s civil war. Hezbollah depends on its flow of arms from Iran passing through Syria.
