' fill='%230E4F97'%3E%3Cg id='Group-5' transform='translate(370.000000, 11.000000)'%3E%3Cg id='avatar' transform='translate(6.000000, 4.000000)'%3E%3Ccircle id='Oval' cx='8' cy='4' r='4'%3E%3C/circle%3E%3Cpath d='M7.12864205,10 L8.87135795,10 C11.558649,10 14.0087196,11.5384024 15.1762205,13.958831 L16,15.6666667 L16,15.6666667 L15.3374858,17.5134983 C15.228016,17.8186575 14.9774027,18.051811 14.6651459,18.1389975 L8,20 L8,20 L1.33485405,18.1389975 C1.02259733,18.051811 0.771984007,17.8186575 0.662514216,17.5134983 L0,15.6666667 L0,15.6666667 L0.823779545,13.958831 C1.99128041,11.5384024 4.44135104,10 7.12864205,10 Z' id='Rectangle'%3E%3C/path%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/g%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hezbollah chief blames Israel for commander’s death
Hassan Nasrallah promises to avenge the assassination of his childhood friend Hassan al-Laqis earlier this month
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah during a rare public appearance, in the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon in November 2013. (AP/Bilal Hussein)
BEIRUT — The leader of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group says it is confident based on evidence it has that Israel was behind this month’s assassination in Beirut of a senior Hezbollah commander.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah vowed in a speech Friday to exact revenge.
Hassan al-Laqis was gunned down in the garage of his nearby apartment building on Dec. 4.
Israel denied involvement but Nasrallah, whose fighters are assisting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in the civil war in Syria and has no shortage of enemies, insisted that Israel was to blame.
He said the killers will be hunted down and “they will be killed sooner or later.”
Nasrallah described al-Laqis as a “brother and friend since we were teenagers.”
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
read more: