HEZBOLLAH ACCUSES ISRAEL OF ASSASSINATING COMMANDER HASSAN LAKKIS
Beirut, 1 Safar 1435/5 December 2013 (MINA) – Lebanese powerful militant movement, Hezbollah, claimed in a statement that the killing of Hassan Lakkis, a senior Hezbollah official and also an expert in weapons manufacturing, two days ago was done by Israel.
Lebanese security officials told that Lakkis was gunned down by assault rifle fire as a group of assailants targeted his car. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died early Wednesday from his wounds. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, as Russia Today reported quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
Hezbollah described Lakkis as “one of the leaders of the Islamic resistance” against Israel and said the Jewish state had tried to kill him several times in the past.
Lakkis was killed overnight outside his home in the Hadath district in Beirut as he was returning from work, the statement said. The statement warned that Israel would “bear full responsibility and all consequences” for the hit.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied Israeli involvement.
“Israel has nothing to do with this incident,” Palmor said. “These automatic accusations are an innate reflex with Hezbollah. They don’t need evidence, they don’t need facts, they just blame anything on Israel.”
Israel views Hezbollah, an anti-Israeli militant organization, as one of its prime enemies in the region. In 2006 it fought a 34-day war against Lebanon, in which Hezbollah forces were Israel’s main target.
The Israeli Air Force allegedly carried out at least six strikes in war-torn Syria, with sources saying the attacks were meant to prevent transfer of advanced weapons to the Lebanese movement.
Hezbollah lost its senior members to Israeli strikes in the past. Nasrallah’s predecessor as the head of the movement, Abbas Musawi was assassinated in 1992, when Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at his motorcade, killing the Musawi, his wife, five-year-old son and four bodyguards.
Hezbollah is a powerful political and military organisation in Lebanon. 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 Ahronot, told 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, counter-terrorism, and he brought this knowledge with him to Hezbollah, so he was one of these channels through which the Iranians gave Hezbollah their assistance.”(T/P04/P03)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
