A senior commander with Hezbollah was shot and killed outside his Beirut home, said the militant group from Lebanon on Wednesday. The group immediately placed the blame on Israel for the shooting and warned it would suffer consequences.
Hassan al-Laqees was killed late Tuesday in the Lebanese capital while returning from work, said Hezbollah in a prepared statement.
The statement said the Israeli enemy is held responsible for what we call a heinous crime. Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Israel denied any involvement by Israel, reported various news agencies.
Palmor said Israel was not involved in the incident and the automatic accusations are just innate reflexes by Hezbollah. The group said Palmor do not need any evidence or facts, they just place blame for anything on Israel.
The Hezbollah commander suffered five shots to the neck and head, said a local newspaper. Hezbollah said that Laqees spent his entire life serving against Israel and lost one son during the 2006 war the group had with Israel. On several occasions prior to Tuesday, there have been unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Laqees.
Though Hezbollah turns its suspicions to its enemy Israel, there has been an increase in tension in Lebanon between Sunni extremist groups and Shiite Hezbollah. The Sunni’s oppose Hezbollah’s role in the Syria Civil War, where they are fighting side by side with the governmental forces in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Over the last year, targets tied to Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, have been hit. These attacks have included bombings in suburbs south of Beirut where Hezbollah has its stronghold.
Anrar al-Sunna Baalbek Brigade, a group that is little known, claimed on twitter responsibility, but no verification of the claim could be made. The tweet spoke harshly of the arrests by Hezbollah of Sunnis in Lebanon’s Baalbek area.
Laqees was gunned down just after a television broadcast in Lebanon of an interview with Hasan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah. In the interview, Nasrallah accused the country of Saudi Arabia of supporting Lebanon based groups tied to al-Qaeda including one that had claimed responsibility for carrying out the double suicide bombing on November 19 of the Iranian Embassy.
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