Shiite cleric on US 'terror' list dies in Lebanon
Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a former spiritual mentor of the Shiite militant group Hizbollah and branded a "terrorist" by Washington, died in hospital yesterday aged 75, officials said. A top authority of Shiite Islam revered in Lebanon...
Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a former spiritual mentor of the Shiite militant group Hizbollah and branded a "terrorist" by Washington, died in hospital yesterday aged 75, officials said.
A top authority of Shiite Islam revered in Lebanon and the region, including his native Iraq, Ayatollah Fadlallah was a "sayyed" to denote direct lineage with the Prophet Mohammed and known for his moderate social views.
A fiery anti-US and anti-Israeli critic, he died in a Beirut hospital where he was admitted on Friday for internal bleeding.
"Sayyed Fadlallah has died this morning," senior aide Ayatollah Abdullah al-Ghurayfi told a news conference, flanked by the late cleric's son, Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, who could not hold back his tears.
"The father, the leader, the marjaa (religious authority), the guide, the human being is gone," Mr Ghurayfi said.
Hizbollah's Al-Manar television interrupted its regular broadcasts to announce his death, posting a picture of the black-turbanned Fadlallah and airing Koranic verses.
The group urged supporters to turn out in huge numbers for the funeral ceremony on Tuesday and called for three days of mourning, as the militant party's leader hailed Ayatollah Fadlallah as a "father and guide."
"He was a merciful father and a wise guide... who taught us to support dialogue, reject injustice and resist (Israeli) occupation," Hizbollah supremo Hassan Nasrallah said in a statement.
Mr Fadlallah and Mr Nasrallah are both blacklisted as "terrorists" by the United States.
Mr Ghurayfi described the Shiite cleric as "the brains behind the launch of the resistance" against Israel - including Hizbollah's campaign against the Jewish state's occupation of Arab land.
"I will only rest when the Zionist entity falls," Mr Fadlallah once said, according to Ghurayfi.
Ayatollah Fadlallah is to be buried tomorrow at southern Beirut's Hassanein mosque following the funeral, his office said, adding that a convoy would set off from the cleric's home in the Haret Hreik suburb at 1030 GMT.
News of his death prompted hundreds of followers to rush to the Hassanein mosque where family and associates were receiving condolences in a sombre mood as officials eulogised the grand ayatollah.
"Lebanon has lost a great national and spiritual authority," Prime Minister Saad Hariri said in a statement.
Health Minister Mohammed Khalifeh said: "Sayyed Fadlallah represented independence and progress and was a partisan of science and development, while still respecting the fundamentals" of religion.