Hezbollah Chief: New "Incentive" To Attack

Hezbollah's chief on Thursday vowed to retaliate against Israeli targets abroad after accusing Israel of taking the fight beyond Lebanese borders by assassinating militant commander Imad Mughniyeh in Syria.

"You have killed Hajj Imad outside the natural battlefield," Hassan Nasrallah said, addressing Israel and referring to Hezbollah's longtime contention it only fights Israel within Lebanon and along their common border.

"You have crossed the borders," Nasrallah said in the fiery eulogy at the funeral of Mughniyeh in south Beirut. "With this murder, its timing, location and method - Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: Let this war be open."

"Like all human beings we have a sacred right to defend ourselves," said Nasrallah, speaking in a videotaped message broadcast over a giant screen at the ceremony in a Hezbollah stronghold. "We will do all that takes to defend our country and people."

Nasrallah went into hiding in 2006, fearing and Israeli assassination and making only three appearances since the summer war that year with Israel.

Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday. Hezbollah and its top ally, Iran, have accused Israel. Israel rejected the accusation, but welcomed the assassination, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips.

"The free and democratic world today achieved a very, very important goal," said Danny Yatom, former head of the Mossad.

Mughniyeh was also on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, and the U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed.

Nasrallah warned that Israel's killing of Mughniyeh was a "very big folly" which Israel will eventually pay for.

"Mughniyeh's blood will lead to the elimination of Israel. These words are not an emotional reaction," he said, drawing roars from the crowd which raised fists into the air.

He said the killing did not weaken his organization, but rather was a "incentive." Mughniyeh left behind "tens of thousands" of guerrillas "fully ready" to fight Israel, Nasrallah said, maintaining that the 2006 war with the Jewish state has not ended.

A U.N. resolution that ended the summer war in which more than 1,200 people died called for a cessation of hostilities to be followed later by a cease-fire, which has never been agreed to.

Soon after he finished speaking, volleys of celebratory gunfire echoed around the city's southern suburbs.

As Shiite Muslims supporters of Hezbollah bid farewell to Mughniyeh, their pro-Western opponents marked former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's 2005 assassination at an opposing Beirut gathering.

Tens of thousands poured into Beirut's main Martyrs' Square since the morning for the third anniversary of Hariri's assassination, braving the rain and the cold, waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain Hariri and party banners.

There were no independent crowd estimates, but majority leader Saad Hariri, the late premier's son, greeted what he said was a crowd of 1.5 million. Some beat drums and cheered as speakers lashed out at the opposition.

A sharp Hezbollah critic, Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, said the government will not succumb to opposition efforts to deliver Lebanon "to the Iranian-Syrian black evil world."

The two gatherings showcased Lebanon's divided soul but also increased fears of violence between the rival sides, prompting authorities to deploy thousands of troops and set up blockades on major roads.

Developments could define the course in the ongoing Lebanese political confrontation, whether the country slides further into chaos - and possibly civil war - or takes a step back from the brink.