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Hezbollah Military Leader Is Assassinated Near Beirut Major Hezbollah Figure Is Assassinated Near Beirut
(about 7 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Hezbollah military leader was assassinated on Wednesday in front of his home south of Beirut, the Lebanese militant organization said, in what was feared to be an escalation of reprisals over the group’s alliance with the Syrian government in that country’s brutal civil war. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hassane Laqees was a major player in the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah from its inception three decades ago to its current intervention in Syria’s civil war. Over the years, he survived several assassination attempts.
The killing of the military leader, Hassane Laqees, came a day after Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, accused Saudi Arabia of responsibility for a deadly bombing in Beirut last month that targeted the embassy of Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival and the military and political benefactor of both Hezbollah and the Syrian government. But as he parked his car just after midnight on Wednesday near an apartment south of Beirut that he sometimes used, he was shot dead at close range. It was a professional-style killing that signaled a new escalation in the attacks Hezbollah has faced after plunging into the turmoil in neighboring Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad.
Hezbollah, which announced the assassination of Mr. Laqees in a statement, did not provide further details. Lebanese news reports said he was gunned down in a parking lot near an apartment where he stayed or worked, which is near but not inside the security zone that Hezbollah maintains around its headquarters in southern Beirut. Mr. Laqees’s death was a significant loss for Hezbollah, analysts said, and any of the group’s primary enemies — Israel, the Syrian insurgents the group is battling, or their backers, such as Saudi Arabia or Lebanese Sunni militants — could have had reason to want him dead. Mr. Laqees was variously described as running the group’s sophisticated telecommunications network and working to procure strategic weapons.
Hezbollah accused “the Israeli enemy” of targeting him and said Israel would have to “bear all the responsibility and ramifications of this vile crime.” Israeli officials denied involvement. Hezbollah is facing “a convergence of hostilities,” from Sunni militants, particularly extremists who are increasingly dominant in the Syrian insurgency and consider Shiites apostates, as well as from its longtime nemesis Israel, said Kamel Wazne, a Lebanese specialist on Hezbollah.
At the same time, memorial images circulated on social media showing him against a backdrop of the Sayida Zeinab shrine near Damascus, in Syria, framing his death as part of the conflict there. And a previously unknown group calling itself the Free Sunnis of Baalbek, a town in the Bekaa Valley where Hezbollah support is strong, claimed responsibility for the killing. Hezbollah, a close ally of Iran and Syria’s government, has sent fighters to aid Mr. Assad’s forces in important battles, a decision that has enraged Hezbollah’s Sunni rivals, who back the Syrian rebels.
Hezbollah, a Shiite organization and historically close ally of Iran and of Syria’s government, has sent fighters to defend the shrine, revered by Shiites, and to aid President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in other key battles, a decision that has enraged Hezbollah’s Sunni rivals, who back the Syrian rebels. The killing fueled fears of escalation of tit-for-tat violence inside Lebanon related to the Syrian conflict, and it was carried out despite heightened security measures taken by Hezbollah. It came shortly after Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, accused Saudi Arabia of being behind last month’s deadly bombing at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, another attack that hit a major ally of the Syrian government.
Israeli officials said that they believed that Mr. Laqees was targeted by radical Sunnis in Lebanon as part of sectarian tensions over the war in Syria. Hezbollah did not say how Mr. Laqees had been killed but accused “the Israeli enemy” of targeting him and said Israel would have to “bear all the responsibility and ramifications of this vile crime.”
Hezbollah, in keeping with the deep secrecy surrounding its military structure and operations, did not specify what role Mr. Laqees played in the organization or how senior he was. But Matthew Levitt, the author of “Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God,” said that in the late 1990s Mr. Laqees had been a “very, very senior” figure, in charge of procuring supplies for Hezbollah from Canada, including computers and night-vision goggles. Yet at the same time, memorial images circulating on social media framed his death as part of the conflict in Syria, showing him against a backdrop of the Sayida Zeinab shrine near Damascus, Syria, a site particularly revered by Shiites that Hezbollah has helped to defend.
According to information gathered by the F.B.I. and other agencies during an investigation of cigarette smuggling by Hezbollah in Charlotte, N.C., Mr. Laqees was in close touch with Imad Mughniyeh, a Hezbollah commander later assassinated by Israel. At the funeral in Baalbek, in Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, mourners gathered under umbrellas to watch a procession that placed Mr. Laqees’s portrait alongside those of the group’s top leaders, a level of ceremony that analysts said spoke to his importance within the organization. Mohammed Yazbek, a senior Hezbollah cleric, said at the funeral that whoever was responsible was associated with those responsible for the attack on the Iranian Embassy.
But since then, he had largely dropped from view, in part because of his exposure in that case, Mr. Levitt said. Two previously unknown groups whose names suggested they were Sunni militants claimed responsibility for the killing, though it was unclear if either group existed beyond online statements. One called itself Free Sunnis of Baalbek, a town where Hezbollah support is strong. The other, Ansar al-Sunnah, said in an online statement that Mr. Laqees bore direct responsibility for the “massacre” in Qusayr, a strategic border town that Hezbollah helped Syrian forces capture from rebels.
Analysts said Mr. Laqees could have been a high-level target of opportunity for Sunni militants in Lebanon or could have been targeted for possible involvement in Syria. Israeli officials denied involvement, and Israeli analysts said they believed that Mr. Laqees was targeted by radical Sunnis in Lebanon as part of sectarian tensions over Syria.
Hezbollah has blamed previous attacks on Israel rather than point the finger at Sunni militants. Analysts view that as a signal that the group, which is also Lebanon’s strongest political party, does not want to escalate sectarian tensions in Lebanon. Hezbollah’s statement announcing the death, in keeping with the deep secrecy surrounding its military structure and operations, did not spell out what role Mr. Laqees played in the organization or how senior he was.
The Hezbollah statement said Mr. Laqees had dedicated his life “to the honorable resistance from its first days to his final hours” and noted that he lost a son in the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. But Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency said he had run the telecommunications network, and Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, said he had played a significant role in obtaining weapons, including long-range rockets that, according to American officials, Israel had bombed several times to prevent them from being delivered from Syria.
Lebanese security officials told The Associated Press that gunmen had opened fire on Mr. Laqees while he was inside his car near an apartment building in Hadath, one of Beirut’s southern suburbs. He died later in the hospital from his wounds, the officials said. Mr. Laqees was “the address on the other side of the efforts to smuggle advanced weapons systems from Syria to Hezbollah,” Amos Harel, an Israeli journalist who frequently writes about intelligence matters, wrote in Haaretz. He added that it was possible Israel could have been taking advantage of the chaos around Syria to target a major Hezbollah leader.
Matthew Levitt, the author of “Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God,” said that in the late 1990s Mr. Laqees had been a “very, very senior” figure, in charge of procuring dual-use supplies for Hezbollah from Canada, such as computers and night vision goggles. According to information gathered by the F.B.I. and other agencies during an investigation of Hezbollah cigarette smuggling in Charlotte, N.C., Mr. Laqees was in close touch with Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah commander later assassinated in Syria by Israel.
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for previous attacks rather than point a finger at Sunni militants, in what analysts view as a signal that the group, which is also Lebanon’s strongest political movement, does not want to escalate sectarian tensions inside Lebanon.
The Hezbollah statement said that Mr. Laqees had dedicated his life “to the honorable resistance from its first days to his final hours” and noted that he lost a son in the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese Army commander and head of the Middle East Center for Studies and Public Relations, said it was odd that such a senior figure did not have better security precautions and was staying outside Hezbollah’s security zone and traveling without bodyguards. But Mr. Wazne said it was not unusual for senior commanders to keep a low profile.
Al Manar, a Hezbollah television channel, reported from the scene that the authorities were questioning the concierge of the building where Mr. Laqees occasionally worked and stayed. Footage showed blood on the driver’s seat of his car, and the Manar correspondent said footprints suggested that there had been multiple assassins.
Mr. Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, took a provocative step in directly blaming Saudi Arabia for the embassy bombing, analysts noted. “They reached the point where they have to name the things the way they are,” Mr. Wazne said. “No more cover-up. There is an open war going on through a proxy war in Syria.”

Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem.