Hezbollah commander Hassan Lakkis killed in Beirut

A senior commander of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah has been killed near Beirut, the group says.

Hassan Lakkis was "assassinated" near his home in Hadath - 7km (4.3 miles) south-east of the Lebanese capital, Hezbollah TV channel Al-Manar said.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for his death but Israel denies the accusation.
Little is known publicly about Lakkis, but he was reputedly close to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an expert in weapons manufacturing.
The news comes a day after Hassan Nasrallah said Saudi Arabia was behind last month's bombings outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut.

Who was Hezbollah's Hassan Lakkis?

• A commander in the militant group, said to have been close to leader Hassan Nasrallah
• Reported to have trained in Iran in warfare and the manufacture of weapons, explosives and booby traps
• Possibly a member of a unit within Hezbollah which coordinates with Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Gaza
• Thought to be in his mid-40s
• One of his sons was killed fighting Israel in 2006 conflict

"These automatic accusations are an innate reflex with Hezbollah," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. "They don't need evidence, they don't need facts. They just blame anything on Israel."

Hezbollah - or the Party of God - is a powerful political and military organisation in Lebanon made up mainly of Shia Muslims.
It emerged with financial backing from Iran in the early 1980s and began a struggle to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon.
Hezbollah fought a destructive 34-day war with Israel in 2006. The group said that one of Lakkis's sons had been killed in that conflict.
Dr Ronen Bergman, a writer on military intelligence affairs for Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot , said Lakkis "became known in Hezbollah as the guy in charge of manufacturing sophisticated weaponry, explosives, booby traps, he was a technical guy".
He added: "... Hassan was the leading figure who received Iranian guidance, he studied in Iran the issues of microwarfare, terrorism, counterterrorism, and he brought this knowledge with him to Hezbollah, so he was one of these channels through which the Iranians gave Hezbollah their assistance..."

Lakkis was attacked in the car park of the building where he lived

Some sources say Lakkis was shot with a silenced gun

Hostility to Israel has been Hezbollah's defining platform for many years

 

 

 

source:bbcnews