News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Hundreds of thousands of Hizbullah supporters are attending the funeral of veteran terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in Beirut.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Hizbullah deputy leader Sheik Naim Kassem received condolences alongside Fayez Mughniyeh, father of the slain murderer, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a personal message praising the man accused of organizing some of the worst terrorist atrocities of the past 30 years. Ahmadinejad said there were thousands of "Mughniyehs" amongst the Lebanese people and said the only outcome of the assassination for "those who occupy Jerusalem" would be a shortened lifespan for Zionists.

Earlier Thursday, Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt marked three years since the murder of anti-Syria former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri with an accusatory finger at Syria, saying the regime of dictator Bashar Assad wants to create a Syrian proxy-state out of Lebanon. He also said the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh showed the "traitorous" nature of the Assad regime because Mughniyeh was killed in Damascus.