Hezbollah commander Qantar killed in Israeli air raid in Syria

Hezbollah said Qantar was "martyred" in an Israeli raid on the residential district of Jaramana in the Syrian capital, but gave no details.

Beirut: Lebanese Hezbollah militant leader Samir Qantar was killed in an Israeli air strike in Damascus early on Sunday, the Lebanese group and Syrian government sources said.
Israel welcomed his death, saying he had been preparing attacks on it from Syrian soil, but stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed him.
Hezbollah said Qantar was "martyred" in an Israeli raid on the residential district of Jaramana in the Syrian capital, but gave no details.
Israel released Qantar, a Druze, in 2008 as part of a prisoner swap with Iranian-backed Hezbollah and he is since believed to have joined the group, which has sent hundreds of its members to fight alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
On his release, Qantar was welcomed as a hero in Beirut.
Hezbollah's official media said Qantar would be buried on Monday in a cemetery in its main stronghold of Dahiya in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The party, which mourned him, also opened a condolences hall to receive the public.
Syrian Information Minister Omran Al Zubi said the authorities were investigating the attack but pointed the finger towards Israel, though he fell short of blaming it.
"The party that gains most from the assassination of Qantar is the Zionist enemy whom we have long known for these cowardly attacks," Zubi told Hezbollah's Manar television station.
Official Syrian media said an Israeli aerial strike hit a six-storey residential building in the Jaramana district.
Israeli Cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz said he was not sorry about Qantar's death but could not comment on the accusations that Israel was behind the killing.
"If something happened to him I think that no civilised person can be sorry. But again I learned it from the reports in the international media and I can make no concrete reference to it," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not comment about the strike in his weekly Cabinet meeting.
The Israeli news website Ynet ran a headline Sunday saying: "The account is now closed."
"I am not confirming or denying anything to do with this matter," Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel Radio, adding: "It is good that people like Samir Qantar will not be part of our world."
Qantar was jailed in Israel for his part in a 1979 raid that killed four people, including a girl he was convicted of bludgeoning.
Israel has struck Syria several times since the start of the war there almost 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 and it was not immediately clear what role Qantar, born in 1962, played in the fighting in Syria.
Syrian state media said Qantar was involved in a major offensive launched earlier this year by the Syrian army and its allies near the Syrian Golan Heights in Quneitra near the Israeli border against rebels fighting to topple Assad.
Rebels in southern Syria also said Qantar was present in battles this year to defend a Syrian air base near the Druze majority city of Sweida close to the border with Jordan that rebels sought to capture.
Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked accused Qantar of overseeing covert Hezbollah entrenchment on the Syrian Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northeastern Israel.
"He set up a broad terror network on the Golan, and it is good that he returned his soul to his creator," Shaked told Israel's Army Radio, without elaborating on any Israeli role.
Yaakov Amidror, Israel's former national security adviser, predicted Hezbollah would seek to exact "small revenge" for Qantar's killing, but said Hezbollah, like Iran, was likely too busy fighting in Syria to afford a new front with Israel.
"It would not be in their interest, and if they did so, they would have a big problem," Amidror said, alluding to Israel's threats to respond to any major Hezbollah attack with strikes in Lebanon.
Syrian government loyalists said the explosions that killed Qantar were an Israeli strike. The National Defence Forces in Jaramana, part of a nationwide grouping of loyalist Syrian militias under the umbrella of the army, mourned Qantar on its Facebook page.
"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.
Israel possesses long-range air to surface missiles that conceivably could have been fired from Israeli-controlled airspace. The Golan Heights are only about 40 kilometers from Damascus.
Israeli warplanes have struck targets inside Syria several times during the country's nearly five-year conflict.

Who is Samir Qantar?
> Lebanese militant leader Samir Qantar was born in 1962 and joined Palestinian militant group known as the 'Palestine Liberation Front' as a teenager.
> He was jailed in Israel for his part in a 1979 raid that killed four people, including a girl.
> He was sentenced to five life terms plus 47 years for murdering the father and daughter, as well as an Israeli policeman.
> Qantar was freed by Israel as part of a prisoner swap in 2008 with Hezbollah group.
> His release was highly controversial in Israel, where he is believed to be the perpetrator of one of the most grisly attacks in Israeli history.
> On his release, Qantar was welcomed as a hero in Beirut in 2008.
> After his release, he is believed to have joined Hezbollah group.
> The United States had placed Qantar on its terror blacklist.
> Hezbollah says Qantar was 'martyred' in an Israeli raid on the residential district of Jaramana in Damascus.
> Qantar's brother, Bassam, confirmed his 'martyrdom' in a Facebook posting on Sunday.
> Israel has welcomed his death, but stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed him.

• MENA