Hezbollah militia official was killed Monday when his car exploded as he was prepared to leave his home in southern Beirut, the Islamic militant group said, blaming Israel for the bombing. Ghaleb Awali, 40, was "an official of the resistance," a Hezbollah spokesman said. He declined to give any details and spoke on condition of anonymity. Al-Manar TV, run by Hezbollah, showed pictures of the burned out car and said it blew up when "one of the strugglers in the resistance" started the engine to leave his home.
"The Zionist enemy is fully responsible for this brazen crime, which was an act of vengeance for the resistance's victories and steadfastness," Hezbollah said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Beirut. Hezbollah generally refers to Israel as the "Zionist enemy" rather than by name. Awali's casket, draped in Hezbollah's yellow flag, was carried through a crowd gathered to hear a eulogy from the group's next exploding leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah said Israel ultimately was responsible for Awali's death and promised to cut off the hands of those who killed him. Awali, he said, was a member of the team who in later years was supporting the Palestinians against Israel. "He's the martyr of the road to Palestine, a martyr of Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in confronting the Zionist project," Nasrallah said.
| He's also dead. Consider. |
A Lebanese security official said the blast went off at 9:05 a.m. local time in the predominantly Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Harat Hreik, a Hezbollah stronghold. Several nearby buildings were damaged, their windows shattered, but there were no other casualties in the explosion, he said. Hezbollah said in a statement that Awali died instantly, though a Lebanese security official said he was rushed to a nearby Hezbollah-run hospital where he died soon after.
| Thus depriving the locals of their car-swarm. |
Awali, also known as Abu Mustafa, began participating in operations against Israel in 1982, when Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon. He led many operations and was captured and detained by Israeli forces early on, according to Hezbollah, which did not provide details. The group said he had participated in several advanced military courses, and later in cultural and administrative courses.
A similar blast in August 2003 killed Ali Hussein Saleh, who was widely believed to be an explosives expert for Hezbollah and worked as a security guard at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. An unidentified man sitting beside him and a passer-by also were killed and several people were injured. Hezbollah accused the United States and Israel of masterminding Saleh's killing. Awali, who was married with five children, was to be buried later Monday in his birthplace of Toulin, in southern Lebanon. |
