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 yesterday, 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 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 Shiite 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 Shiite 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 neighboring 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.

    Syria’s state media, which did not mention Qantar, blamed “terrorist groups” for the attack and said it caused casualties.

    (SD-Agencies)