Thousands attend the funeral of Hezbollah leader months after his death

An Hezbollah supporter holds a picture of the late Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israeli airstrikes, as she stands at the burial site during preparations a day ahead of his public funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon (Bilal Hussein/AP)

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Beirut early on Sunday to attend the funeral of Hezbollah’s former leader, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital.

Hassan Nasrallah was killed when Israel’s air force dropped more than 80 bombs on the militant group’s main operations room. His death was a major blow for the Iran-backed group that the late leader transformed into a potent force in the Middle East.