BEIRUT: Lebanon was rife with speculation on Sunday after a Hezbollah fighter was found shot dead in a car between two villages in the south of the country.
The Iran-backed militant group published an obituary of Mohammed Ali Younes describing him as a “martyr,” code for alleging that he was killed by Mossad agents from Israel.
An Iranian news agency also said Younes was responsible for “tracking collaborators with Israel, and spies.”
However, analysts told Arab News that Younes’s death was the latest fallout from the release of Amer Al-Fakhoury, an Israeli agent accused of torturing prisoners in the notorious Khiam detention center during the civil war.
Hezbollah has been severely criticized for approving Al-Fakhoury’s return last month from Lebanon to the US.
Anti-Hezbollah website Janoubia News said Younes “was working on a sensitive file with security implications.”
Website editor Ali Al-Amin, told Arab News: “Hezbollah described Younes as a martyr, which means that Mossad was behind his death, but those who know the area where he was killed know that it is open. No Israeli agent could have carried out an assassination and hide so easily.
“It doesn’t look as though Younes was a leading figure in Hezbollah, or that he was assigned a major mission. Most likely, this was an internal problem. That is why Mossad was accused. The party has resorted to that before, and it was found later that Mossad had nothing to do with it.”
Amin said the murder could be related to “clearing Hezbollah’s page following the criticisms leveled against it for its approval of Al-Fakhoury’s release.”
