Free Syrian Army Claims Assassination of al-Quntar
The Free Syrian Army claimed on Monday its responsibility for the assassination of prominent Hizbullah member Samir al-Quntar in Syria over the weekend.
It denied in a video Hizbullah's claims that Quntar and his companions were killed in an Israeli jet strike, saying that such allegations are aimed at “making light of the FSA's achievements.”
“They are also aimed at raising the morale of its mercenaries,” said the FSA fighters of Hizbullah members engaged in the Syrian conflict.
Addressing the party, the so-called “knights of the Houran brigade” said: “We vow that all of your actions are being monitored and you will not be spared from our future strikes.”
Media reports on Sunday said that Quntar was killed in an Israeli raid near the Syrian capital.
Israeli warplanes targeted a building where Quntar and a number of his companions were residing in Hay al-Homsi in Jarmana southeast of Damascus, killing an unidentified number, they added.
Witnesses said that three missiles were launched at the residential building and led to its total collapse, killing six individuals and wounding another twelve.
Media reports close to Hizbullah said that Israeli warplanes carried out raids on the said location, killing at least nine individuals and an unidentified number were wounded.
Israeli did not claim responsibility for the strikes.
Quntar was imprisoned in 1979 in Israel after he was convicted of murder in an attack that left an Israeli policeman, a father and his two children dead. He was long wanted in Israel for the attack considered one of the grisliest in Israeli history.
Israel released Quntar as part of a prisoner exchange in 2008, three decades after the killings, and has since become a high-profile figure in Hizbullah.
In September the United States placed Quntar on its terror blacklist, saying he had "played an operational role, with the assistance of Iran and Syria, in building up Hizbullah's infrastructure in the Golan Heights."
M.T.
D.A.
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