BEIRUT, Aug 2: A powerful car bomb killed a member of Hezbollah guerilla group on Saturday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iranian and Syrian-backed organization.

Hezbollah called the man — whom security sources identified as a Lebanese driver for the Iranian embassy — a martyr and one of its holy warriors, in accounts of the bombing on the group’s television station.

“Hezbollah laments one of its Mujahideen,” a presenter on the Al-Manar TV station run by Hezbollah said, before reading a statement saying: “Hezbollah mourns Ali Hussein Saleh, who died in an explosion in his car this morning.”

Witnesses said the blast gouged a gaping hole in the ground, propelled the car about 10 metres and blew its driver to pieces. A passerby, whom witnesses and security officials initially thought had been in the car, was seriously injured, security sources said.

Security forces cordoned off the area and used bags to collect the dead man’s body parts, which the force of the blast had thrown up to the second and third-floor levels of the surrounding buildings.

A senior security official said a bomb in the car ripped it apart as the dead man drove away from his residence.

“He started the engine, got going and went about 100 metres (yards), then it blew him up. It appears to be a well-planned operation,” the source said.—Reuters