Samir Qantar: Hezbollah leader 'killed in Damascus rocket strike'

Qantar is believed to have been a key leader in Hezbollah and in September the US State Department desginated him as a terrorist

Samir Qantar had spent almost 30 years in an Israeli prison (Getty/Salah Malkawi )

The senior Lebanese militant Samir Qantar has been killed in a rocket strike in Dasmascus, Syrian government loyalists and the Hezbollah group have said.

The militant, reviled in Israel for a notorious attack in 1979 killing four, was freed from prison in 2008 as part of a controversial prisoner swap with Hezbollah.

Qantar’s brother Bassam Kantar paid tribute to him on his Facebook page and declared his brother a martyr. He wrote: "With pride we mourn the martyrdom of the leader Samir Qantar and we are honoured to join families of martyrs.”

While the Lebanese Shia militant group have said Qantar was killed by an Israeli airstrike, Israel refused to confirm any details. Yoav Gallant, Israel’s housing minister, told Israel Radio: “I am not confirming or denying anything to do with this matter.”

But he added: "It is good that people like Samir Qantar will not be part of our world."

Upon his release in 2008 Qantar was welcomed as a hero in Beirut and because of the length of time he spent in prison he became known in Lebanon as the “Dean of Lebanese Prisoners”. He is believed to have been a key figure in Hezbollah and in September the US State department designated him as a terrorist.

The National Defence Forces (NDF) in Jaramana, which are part of a nationwide grouping of loyalist Syrian militias under the umbrella of the army, mourned Qantar and one of its commanders on its Facebook page.

The NDF said: “Two Israeli warplanes carried out the raid which targeted the building in Jaramana and struck the designated place with four long range missiles.

"His [Qantar’s] body has been sent to a Damascus hospital moments ago.”

Additional reporting by Reuters