Lebanese Hezbollah leader Samir Qantar was killed in an Israeli strike that hit a building in the Damascus district of Jaramana in the early hours on Sunday, the Lebanese Hezbollah group and Syrian government loyalists said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said Qantar was martyred in an Israeli aerial raid on a residential district of the Syrian capital Damascus but gave no details.
An Israeli cabinet minister welcomed on Sunday the killing of Qantar but stopped short of confirming allegations that Israel was responsible.
Israel released Qantar, a Druze, in 2008 as part of a prisoner swap with the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group and he is believed to have joined the group since.
Israel has struck Syria several times since the start of the war five years ago, mostly destroying weaponry such as missiles that Israeli officials said were destined for Hezbollah, Israel's long-time foe in neighboring Lebanon.
After his release, Qantar kept a low public profile. But it is believed that he had become a commander in Hezbollah, which has sent hundreds of its members to fight alongside forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
However, it was not immediately clear what role Qantar, born in 1962, plays in the fighting in Syria.
His brother Bassam Qantar had earlier mourned him on his Facebook page without giving details about his death, but said his brother was a martyr.
"With pride we mourn the martyrdom of the leader Samir Qantar and we are honored to join families of martyrs," Bassam Qantar said on his Facebook page.
Syria's state media, which did not mention Qantar, blamed "terrorist groups" for the attack and said it caused casualties.
But government loyalists said the explosions were an Israeli strike believed to have killed Qantar, who is reviled in Israel for a 1979 attack that killed four people.
The National Defense Forces in Jaramana, which are part of a nationwide grouping of loyalist Syrian militias under the umbrella of the army, mourned Qantar and one of its commanders on its Facebook page.
"His (Qantar) body has been sent to a Damascus hospital moments ago," it said.
REUTERS
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