AP PHOTOS: Mourners pack into Beirut stadium and streets for Hezbollah leader’s funeral
BEIRUT (AP) — Longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was buried on Sunday after a massive funeral procession in Beirut, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
The Lebanese militant group lost most of its senior leadership and saw its military capabilities severely degraded in the 14-month conflict, which ended with a ceasefire agreement in November.
Many of the group’s primarily Shiite Muslim followers in southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs lost homes and family members, but the psychological blow of Nasrallah’s death was particularly heavy for many.
Designated a terrorist by the United States, his supporters idolized him as a hero because he had led Hezbollah when it forced the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000 and during the brutal monthlong war in 2006 in which the militant group fought Israel to a draw.
Nasrallah’s funeral, which drew hundreds of thousands of people, was a chance for Hezbollah to flex its muscles and show it still has a significant base of support.
Mourners lined up waiting for Nasrallah’s coffin — and that of his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, also killed in an Israeli airstrike — to pass by in hopes of catching one of the flowers tossed by men riding on the platforms.
Some tossed scarves, shirts and other objects onto the coffins, believing that by touching them the garments would be blessed. Men and women cried openly, clutching posters with Nasrallah and Safieddine’s faces.
As the caskets wound their way through a sports stadium in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Israeli fighter jets flashed by overhead, flying low. The crowd responded by chanting, “Death to Israel.”
Associated Press
