Top Hezbollah commander assassinated

 
A Hezbollah official said on Wednesday that one of top commanders of the Lebnanese Islamic Resistance Movement, Imad Mughnieh, had been martyred in Syria, blaming the Israeli occupying regime for his assassination.

The official said Mughnieh was martyred in a car bombing in the Syrian capital late on Tuesday.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television interrupted its normal programming to broadcast music to mark his martyrdom.

The statement carried on Al-Manar TV said: "With all pride we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon joining the martyrs ... The brother commander hajj Imad Mughniyeh became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis".

The announcement came a few hours after a late night explosion in Damascus destroyed a vehicle.

The windows of nearby buildings were blown in and four cars parked close by were damaged.

 Mughnieh was a military and security commander of Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah who join the movement in 1983. 

"He has been a target of the Zionists for 20 years," official Hezbollah statement reads.