Lebanon's Hezbollah group on Monday said it would retaliate for the killing of prominent militant Samir Qantar in an Israeli air strike in Syria, after giving him an elaborate funeral in Beirut of the kind reserved for its top commanders. Thousands of people chanted "death to Israel" as Hezbollah fighters in military uniforms carried Qantar's coffin, which was wrapped by the group's yellow flag, to a Shi'ite Muslim cemetery in its south Beirut stronghold where he was laid to rest. "We have no doubt or question that Israel is the one which assassinated Samir Qantar, its planes fired precision missiles on a residential apartment (he was in)," Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech aired on the group's al-Manar television channel. "Samir is one of us, a commander of our resistance and it is our right to retaliate for his assassination in the place, time and way we see appropriate," Nasrallah said. "We will exercise this right, God willing. Everyone should bear this mind." A number of Syrians were also killed in the attack, he said.
