Bystanders watch the burnt car

BEIRUT, Aug 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies)  – A man, believed to be a member of  the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, was killed Saturday, August 2, in a powerful car bombing in the capital Lebanon.

Identifying the dead man as Ali Hassan Saleh, Hezbollah’s television channel, Al-Manar, reported asserted he "died a martyr following a car bomb in the southern suburb of Beirut."

Abu Dhabi-based Al-Arabiya TV channel reported that Hezbollah had issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack.

The body of Saleh, who hails from Brital in the Lebanon's eastern Bekaa valley, was torn apart by the bomb which detonated just seconds after he switched on the car engine, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Hezbollah deputy Mohammad Raad had earlier told the Voice of Lebanon he could "not exclude the Israeli secret services from being behind the attack."

Two passers-by were also wounded in the blast, which could be heard kilometers away across the city.

Police said the explosives had been hidden in the black BMW's differential.

The blast hit Hadi Nasrallah Street, a busy main road into the capital which bears the name of the deceased son of Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, killed in a resistance attack against Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon before their May 2000 pullout.

The Shiite suburb where Saturday's bomb shattered the peace houses Hezbollah's headquarters.

Unarmed members of the group's service order, equipped with mobile phones and walkie-talkies, helped the Lebanese army to disperse the crowd after the blast.

Nasrallah warned Sunday, July 27, that Hezbollah would capture more Israeli soldiers unless Lebanese prisoners held in Israel were released.

"We are going to give a last chance for negotiations to exchange prisoners between us and Israel. (But) If this chance is not taken, we will consider the number of Israeli prisoners we hold is not enough and work night and day to increase the number," he said.

Hezbollah says it has been holding four Israelis since October 2000, three of them soldiers captured in the Lebanese occupied Shebba Farms.

Israel is holding about 20 Lebanese, including Hezbollah leaders Mustafa Dirani and Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid.