BEIRUT: Thousands of mourners poured onto the streets of Beirut's southern suburbs Monday to mourn the death of the son of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh from an Israeli airstrike the previous day in Syria's Golan Heights.
The black-clad mourners threw their fists into the air, chanting "Death to Israel" and religious slogans as the Hezbollah flag-draped coffin of 25-year-old Jihad Mughniyeh was carried over the sea of marchers towards the Rawdat al-Shahidayn cemetery.
The funeral procession started off in the al-Houraa hall in Baabda’s Ghobeiri district where mourners came to offer their condolences amid funeral prayers delivered by Hezbollah’s politburo chief Sayyed Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed.
Mughniyeh was one of six Hezbollah fighters killed Sunday when an Israeli helicopter attacked a military convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra. At least one Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander was also killed in the strike.
A Lebanese security source told The Daily Star that two Syrian fighters affiliated with Hezbollah were also killed.
Streets were inundated with people carrying Hezbollah flags and shouting slogans as megaphones installed on trucks recited funeral prayers.
The area around the Rawdat al-Shahidayn cemetery was completely blocked by the mass of mourners.
Funerals also took place across southern Lebanon for the other victims of Sunday's attack.
Hezbollah’s top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a suspected Israeli car bombing in Damascus in 2008, is also buried in Rawdat al-Shahidayn.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard confirmed Monday that Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali-Allah Dadi was killed in a "Zionist helicopter attack while he was inspecting the Quneitra region."
Dadi had previously served as a commander in Iran's central Yazd Province.
Hezbollah confirmed the deaths of its six fighters in a statement Sunday, in which it said the team was on “an inspection mission” in the Syrian town of Quneitra.
“Think not of those killed in the way of Allah dead, but alive and well with the Lord,” a Hezbollah statement read. “In all faith and pride the Islamic resistance in Lebanon announces to its loyal people the names of the honorable martyrs.”
In addition to Mughniyeh, Hezbollah mourned field commander Mohammad Issa, 42, Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi, 35, Mohammad Ali Hasan Abu al-Hasan, 29, Ghazi Ali Dawi, 26 and Ali Hasan Ibrahim, 21.
Mahmoud Qmatti, a member of Hezbollah's political bureau, said that the party would respond to the attack “in the right place and in the right time.”[THAT MEANS IF IRAN GIVES THE GO AHEAD!]