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 Israel denied any role in the killing of Hassan al-Laqqis, who was
shot from close range by a silenced gun as he arrived home at around
midnight in the Hadath district of Beirut, a source close to
Hezbollah said.
Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006, also sent
fighters into neighboring Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad
against mainly Sunni Muslim rebels, an intervention which helped to
raise sectarian tension in Lebanon.
A previously unknown group, Ahrar al-Sunna Baalbek brigade, claimed
responsibility for the attack in a message on Twitter. The claim
could not be verified but the name of the purported group suggested
Lebanese Sunni Muslim connections.
Footage from the scene broadcast by Hezbollah's Al Manar television
on Wednesday showed two bullet marks in a wall and muddy footprints
it said had been left by possibly more than one assailant.
Hezbollah described Laqqis, who will be buried in Baalbek in the
Bekaa Valley later in the day, as "one of the leaders of the Islamic
resistance" against Israel who had been frequently targeted by the
Jewish state.
He had been with Hezbollah since it was set up with Iranian support
in the 1980s to fight Israeli troops occupying south Lebanon. His
son was killed in the 2006 war, Hezbollah said in a statement.
"The Israeli enemy tried to get to our martyr brother several times,
in more than one location, but these attempts failed until this
repugnant assassination," it said.
Israel would "bear full responsibility and all the consequences for
this heinous crime", it said.
But Israel denied involvement. "This has strictly nothing to do
Israel," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
"Hezbollah has made a fool of itself in the past with these
automatic and groundless accusations against Israel ... If they are
looking for explanations as to what is happening to them, they
should examine their own actions."
PROFESSIONAL HIT
The source close to Hezbollah said Laqqis had taken part in several
battles inside Syria.
Five years ago top Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyah was killed in
a Damascus car bombing. Hezbollah has blamed Israel for Moughniyah's
death and vowed to avenge it.
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 The source also said Wednesday's attack bore the hallmarks of an
Israeli operation, and analyst Charles Lister of IHS Jane's in
London said it suggested an element of "professionalism and prior
intelligence".
"But what is very clear is that it comes under the context of
Hezbollah and its role in Syria," he said. "It was expected that
Hezbollah would blame Israel, but that is not necessarily the case."
The open role of Hezbollah fighters in the Syrian civil war and the
steady flow of Lebanese Sunnis joining the anti-Assad rebels have
fuelled sectarian strife in Lebanon.
Car bombs killed dozens of people in Beirut in August and a twin
suicide attack on the Beirut embassy of Hezbollah's patron Iran
killed at least 25 people last month.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman blamed Israel for that
attack, but responsibility was claimed by a Lebanon-based al
Qaeda-linked group, the Abdullah Azzam brigades.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said he believed the group
had support from Saudi Arabia, Iran's main regional rival whose
backing for Assad's foes has pushed it deeper into a proxy conflict
in Syria against Tehran.
Abdullah Azzam "is not a fictitious name," Nasrallah said in an
interview broadcast on Lebanese television on Tuesday night. "This
group exists ... It has its leadership ... and I am convinced it is
linked to Saudi intelligence," he said.
"Saudi Arabia is the one who runs these kinds of groups in several
places in the world. [By Laila Bassam and Dominic Evans]
(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Crispian Balmer
in Jerusalem; editing by Alistair Lyon and David Stamp)
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