Thursday, Jan 29, 2009
BEIRUT (AFP)--Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed Thursday to avenge the killing of top commander Imad Mughniyeh, who died in a Damascus car bombing last year which the Shiite militant group blamed on Israel.
"The Israelis live in fear of our revenge," Nasrallah said in a rare news conference via video link. "The decision to respond to the killing is still on. We decide the time and place."
Nasrallah said it was clear Israel was behind Mughniyeh's killing in a car bomb blast last February.
"A probe by Syria indicates that Mossad was behind the assassination," he said.
In his wide-ranging news conference that touched on a number of subjects, Nasrallah said DNA tests on the remains of four fighters handed over by Israel in a 2008 prisoner swap failed to prove their identity.
"We sent DNA samples of the remains to a laboratory in France... a few days ago, the results came out and they were not helpful," Nasrallah said.
"We cannot say that any of the four remains belong to (Palestinian) Dalal al-Moghrabi, (Lebanese) Yehya Skaf or the other two martyrs...so we consider these remains to belong to unknown martyrs."
Moghrabi was killed in a battle with Israeli forces after her group, including Skaf, blew up a bus they had hijacked on the road between Tel Aviv and Haifa in 1978, killing 36 people.
"We do no consider that we have the remains of any of the martyrs who died in Dalal's operation," said Nasrallah.
Last year, Israel transferred to Lebanon the remains of 199 Palestinian and Hezbollah fighters, saying they included Moghrabi and Skaf.
Under the prisoner exchange, Israel freed five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kantar, who was sentenced to five life terms for a 1979 triple murder.
In return, Hezbollah handed over the remains of two Israeli soldiers seized in 2006.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
29-01-09 1653GMT
