Hezbollah chief assassinated

A Hezbollah militia leader was killed in a car bomb explosion in a southern Beirut suburb, a spokesman for the Islamic militant group said.

Ghaleb Awali, 40, was “an official of the resistance”, the spokesman said. He declined to give any details.

Al-Manar TV, affiliated with 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.

A Lebanese security official said the blast went off in the predominantly Shiite Muslim neighbourhood of Harat Hreik, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Hezbollah said in a statement that Awali died instantly.

The Islamic militant group accused Israel of being behind the "brazen crime".

“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.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was expected to lead a funeral service later today in Beirut for Awali, who was to be buried in his birthplace of Toulin, in southern Lebanon.

The security official also said Awali had recently returned from abroad, though neither he nor Hezbollah would say where he had been or for how long.

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.