Demonstrators hold pictures of Hassan Nasrallah, late leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, during a protest vigil in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.AFP
Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday Nasrallah's death, but the Lebanese group did not say how exactly he was assassinated nor when his funeral would be.
Both sources said his body had no direct wounds and that the cause of death appeared to be blunt trauma from the force of the blast, according to Reuters.
Israeli officials speaking to the News York Times said members of Hezbollah retrieved the body of Nasrallah early on Saturday, along with that of Ali Karaki, commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, who was also killed in the strikes along with other commanders.
The Israeli officials told the paper that Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s cousin and a key player in the movement, "was one of the few remaining senior Hezbollah leaders not present at the site of the strike."
Safieddine has long been considered a potential successor to Nasrallah.
The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth cited a senior Israeli military official on Sunday as saying that Safieddine has begun to control Hezbollah and he is stricter than Nasrallah.
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