TEHRAN (Tasnim) � Thousands of people in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, attended the funeral of top Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, who was martyred in Syria.





Badreddine was martyred in an Israeli strike in Damascus this week, the Lebanese resistance movement announced on Friday.

Badreddine�s coffin, draped with a yellow Hezbollah flag, was carried on Friday evening through the streets of a suburb in southern Beirut, as thousands of supporters called for revenge for his martyrdom, Al Jazeera reported.

"[Badreddine] took part in most of the operations of the Islamic resistance since 1982," Hezbollah said in a statement, announcing his martyrdom and describing him as a "great jihad leader".

He was martyred on Tuesday night, the statement said, adding that the attack targeted one of Hezbollah's bases near Damascus airport, the group's nerve-center in the Syrian capital.

The group said it was working to "define the nature of the explosion and its cause, and whether it was the result of an airstrike, or missile [attack] or artillery".

Mustafa Badreddine replaced his brother-in-law Imad Mughniyah after he was martyred in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008.

Israel officially denied being behind Mughniyah's martyrdom, but Israeli media reported at the time that the Hezbollah commander had been a target of Israeli assassination attempts since the 1990s.

By Tasnim News Agency