Lebanese Militant Leader Killed By Israeli Airstrike

Leader of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Samir Qantar, died Sunday night in an alleged Israeli strike in a building in Jaramana, a suburb south of Damascus.

Kantar was fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad forces since 2011 when the civil war began in the country. Hundreds of more Hezbollah members are fighting similarly.

In past five years Israel has struck Syria several times and has destroyed weaponry including missiles.

Israel has welcomed the killing of Kantar without taking credit.

Israel released Kantar in 2008 as part of a prisoner swap with Lebanese Shia Hezbollah group. It is believed he joined the Assad fighter thereafter.

The Hezbollah group said Kantar, Druze, was martyred in an Israeli aerial raid in Damascus without giving further detail.

After his release in 2008 the leader was welcomed as a hero in Beirut and kept low public profile. He wedded a Lebanese Shi’ite woman from a Hezbollah family.

Kantar was born in 1962. His brother Bassam Kantar earlier mourned him on Facebook without clipping any detail. However, he too mentioned his brother was a martyr.

Bassam wrote, “With pride we mourn the martyrdom of the leader Samir Qantar and we are honored to join families of martyrs.”

Meanwhile, state media in Syria has blamed terrorist groups for the attack.