Iran FM: Hezbollah commander's 'martyrdom strengthens resistance to Zionists'

Senior Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine was killed in an airstrike Thursday night in Damascus airport, Lebanese media reported. Although local reports initially attributed the attack to Israel, these accusations have now stopped, according to Haaretz.

The group said it was still investigating the cause of the blast near Damascus airport but it did not immediately point the finger at Israel as it did when the commander's predecessor was assassinated in the Syrian capital in 2008.

A huge crowd thronged the streets as Badreddine's coffin draped in Hezbollah's yellow flag was carried by uniformed young men.

Mourners carried portraits of Badreddine, or threw handfuls of rice and flowers to celebrate his death as a "martyr".

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sent his condolences to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, according to Iran's IRNA news agency, saying that the "martyrdom of this great commander Mustafa will further strengthen resistance forces against the Zionist[s] and terrorism."

Second-in-command Sheikh Naim Qassem told mourners at the funeral he was killed in a "huge blast" at a Hezbollah position near Damascus airport.

He said a probe was under way, but "because there are many possibilities, we don't want to anticipate the investigation."

"I assure you however that within hours, no later than Saturday morning, we will give a detailed account about what caused the blast and who was behind it," Qassem said.

Hezbollah has "clear indication" on who was responsible and how it happened, "but we need some more time to be one hundred percent sure", he added.

The death of Mustafa Badreddine, who had led Hezbollah's massive intervention in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, came as a fragile truce in the country's five-year conflict teetered on the brink of collapse.

Badreddine had been a key player in Hezbollah's military wing virtually since its inception.

He was on a US terror sanctions blacklist, was a key suspect in the 2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and was one of Israel's most wanted men.

Badreddine was also sentenced to death by Kuwait for the part he played in bombings there in 1983, Haaretz reports. He was able to escape from prison in the Gulf state after Iraq invaded in 1990.

He also apparently directed Hezbollah's ground offensives in al-Qusair, a Syrian border town, in 2013 as part of the Shi'ite group's support for the Assad regime in Syria, according to Reuters.

The Shiite militant group, which now dominates Lebanon's government, did not specify which of Badreddine's many enemies it held responsible for his death.

"According to preliminary reports, a large explosion targeted one of our positions near Damascus international airport killing brother commander Mustafa Badreddine and wounding other people," it said in a statement.

"We are going to pursue an inquiry to determine the nature and causes of the explosion and ascertain whether it was the result of an air strike, a missile or artillery fire."

Damascus airport lies to the east of the capital where various rebel groups have a strong presence in the countryside, although pro-government forces have secured the highway to it for the past two years or more.

Badreddine's predecessor, Imad Mughniyeh, his cousin and brother-in-law, was killed in Damascus in 2008 in an attack that drew immediate threats by Hezbollah of heavy retaliation against Israel.

It made no such threats after Badreddine's death.

Israel made no comment, as it did in 2008 too, but Israeli media underlined Hezbollah's failure to point the finger.

In its 2012 terror blacklisting of Badreddine, Washington charged that he was the key pointman for Hezbollah's operations in Syria alongside its key foreign backer Iran in support of Assad's regime.

"Badreddine is assessed to be responsible for Hezbollah's military operations in Syria since 2011, including the movement of Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon to Syria, in support of the Syrian regime," the US Treasury Department said.

"Since 2012, Badreddine coordinated Hezbollah military activities in Syria," it said.

(Staff with AFP)