Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Monday that Israel would always be "haunted by the blood" of Imad Mughniyeh, the group's former military leader who was killed in a Damascus car-bombing widely attributed to Israel in 2008.
Speaking at an event commemorating Hezbollah's "martyrs," Nasrallah also spoke of Imad Mughniyeh's son, Jihad, as a martyr. Jihad Mughniyeh was killed in an airstrike on a Hezbollah convoy in southern Syria last month that has also been attributed to Israel.
"The blood of the martyr Jihad has revived the memory of the commander Hajj Imad Mughniyeh and returned this brilliant and historic leader to the forefront of events once again, confirming that his presence is still strong in the minds of friends and in the mind of the enemy, which will always be haunted by Imad Mughniyeh's blood," Naharnet quoted Nasrallah as saying.
Nasrallah also spoke out against the threat of Sunni jihad groups, saying he supports calls for a national counter-terrorism strategy to confront the jihadi threat. He said that Hezbollah agrees with its political opponents in Lebanon, such as former prime minister Rafik Hariri, on the need for a strategy to fight terrorists. However he added that they disagreed on the need to fight Israel.
Nasrallah opened his speech by strongly condemning Islamic State terrorists who decapitated 21 Coptic Christian Egyptians in Libya on Sunday.
"I want to strongly condemn ISIS's crime against the Egyptian workers, which cannot be tolerated by any religion. We extend our condolences to the Egyptian people and the Coptic Church and this crime has affected both Islam and Christianity," Naharnet quoted him as saying.