Beirut: Lebanon's Hezbollah holds a mass funeral for its assassinated commander Imad Moughniyah, one of the United States most wanted men, in Beirut today to calls of revenge against its sworn enemy Israel.

Big crowds are expected in Beirut's Shiite Muslim southern suburb to bid farewell to Moughniyah, a guerrilla seen as a legend by Hezbollah but on the US most wanted list accused of killing hundreds in attacks on Israeli and Western targets.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, accused Israel of killing Moughniyah on Tuesday by planting a bomb in his car in Damascus. Israel denied any links to the attack while Washington welcomed his death.

Reflecting deep divisions in Lebanon, Moughniyah's funeral will take place a few hours after a rally by the anti-Syrian ruling coalition to mark the third anniversary of the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in Beirut.

The coalition is locked in a bitter 15-month-old power struggle with the Hezbollah-led opposition. Hariri's assassination on February 14, 2005 plunged Lebanon into its worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war and led to the withdrawal of Syrian forces from the country.

Anti-Syrian politicians blame Damascus for Hariri's death. Syria denies any links.

The standoff between the ruling coalition and opposition has spilled over into several deadly clashes over the last year.

Moughniyah's killing is a major blow to Hezbollah, a group whose last confrontation with the Jewish state was the 34-day war of 2006. Moughniyah, 45, had long been on a list of foreigners Israel wanted to kill or capture and had been top of Washington's wanted list before al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden emerged as an enemy of the United States.

Source : UNI