BEIRUT,
July 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Lebanese
resistance movement Hizbullah held Monday, July 19, Israel accountable
for the assassination of one of its senior members in a car bomb.
"The
assassination of one of the cadres of the Islamic Resistance has all
the indications of being an operation carried out by the Zionist
enemy," spokesman Sheikh Hassan Ezzudin told Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
"This
is meant to stir internal discord and divisions among the
Lebanese," he said.
"The
Zionist enemy is behind this act that targets the resistance and one
of its symbols, as well as the security and stability in
Lebanon," he added.
He
pointed the finger at Israel intelligence service Mossad, stressing
"the enemy should bear full responsibility for what it has
done".
Hizbullah
fought Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon before Tel Aviv
was forced to withdraw its troops in May 2000.
Hizbullah
said Ghaleb Awwali was killed in the bomb blast as he was leaving his
home earlier Monday.
The
attack took place on Moawad street, one of the main commercial areas
of the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, still a key Hizbullah
stronghold.
Awwali's
killing was the first assassination of a Hizbullah member since last
year when member Ali Al-Saleh
in a
similar car bombing in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Israel
assassinated the group's leader Abbas Al-Mussawi in 1992 in an air
strike on his car.
Lebanon
has tried and convicted several people in recent years of spying on
and plotting against the group.
Group
Denies Responsibility
Meanwhile,
Sunni Jund Ash-Sham group categorically denied reports that it was
behind the killing.
Group
leader Abu Yusuf Sharqiya told Al-Jazeera satellite channel that the
allegation is a "mere calumny".
"We
strongly condemn this distasteful incident. We only fight the Israeli
occupiers and anyone who wants to invade the Lebanese soil," he
told the Doha-based broadcast over the phone.
Soon
after the explosion, news agencies ran reports alleging Jund Ash-Sham
claimed the attack.
The
group is a splinter group of Osbat Al-Nour, a tiny group that sought
refuge in the Palestinian refugee camp in Ain Al-Helweh after deadly
armed clashes with the Lebanese army in northern Lebanon, in January
2000, according to AFP.
