Israel released Qantar, a Druze, in 2008 as part of a prisoner swap with the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group and he is believed to have joined the group since.
Lebanese militant
leader Samir Qantar was killed in an Israeli strike that hit a building
in the Damascus district of Jaramana in the early hours on Sunday, the
Lebanese Hezbollah group and Syrian government loyalists said.
The
powerful Lebanese Hezbollah group said Qantar was martyred in an
Israeli aerial raid on a residential district of the Syrian capital
Damascus but gave no details.
An Israeli
cabinet minister welcomed on Sunday the killing of Qantar but stopped
short of confirming allegations that Israel was responsible.
Israel
released Qantar, a Druze, in 2008 as part of a prisoner swap with the
Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group and he is believed to have joined the
group since.
He was welcomed as a hero in Beirut and he married a Lebanese Shi'ite woman from a Hezbollah family.
Israel
has struck Syria several times since the start of the war five years
ago, mostly destroying weaponry such as missiles that Israeli officials
said were destined for Hezbollah, Israel's long-time foe in neighbouring
Lebanon.
After his release, Qantar kept a low
public profile. But it is believed that he had become a commander in
Hezbollah, which has sent hundreds of its members to fight alongside
forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
However, it was not immediately clear what role Qantar, born in 1962, plays in the fighting in Syria.
His
brother Bassam Kantar had earlier mourned him on his Facebook page
without giving details about his death, but said his brother was a
martyr.
"With pride we mourn the martyrdom of the leader Samir Qantar and we are honoured to join families of martyrs," Bassam Kantar said on his Facebook page.
Syria's state media, which did not mention Qantar, blamed "terrorist groups" for the attack and said it caused casualties.
But
government loyalists said the explosions were an Israeli strike
believed to have killed Qantar, who is reviled in Israel for a 1979
attack that killed four people.
The National
Defence Forces in Jaramana, which are part of a nation wide grouping of
loyalist Syrian militias under the umbrella of the army, mourned Qantar
and one of its commanders on its Facebook page.
"His(Qantar) body has been sent to a Damascus hospital moments ago," it said.
In
January, an Israeli strike in Syria killed six members of Hezbollah,
including a commander and the son of the group's late military leader Imad Moughniyah in the province of Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Syrian government loyalists blamed Israel for the attack on Sunday.
"Two
Israeli warplanes carried out the raid which targeted the building in
Jaramana and struck the designated place with four long range missiles,"
the NDF in Jaramana Facebook page said.
Jaramana is a bastion of government support and is the home of many of Syria's Druze minority as well as Christians.
Jaramana is a bastion of government support and is the home of many of Syria's Druze minority as well as Christians.
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