EL-TIRI, Lebanon, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Thousands of Hezbollah supporters massed on Wednesday for the funeral of a Lebanese guerrilla whose body was handed over in a rare swap between Israel and the Shiite Muslim militia.

Brandishing the yellow flags of Hezbollah, about 10,000 loyalists flocked in buses and cars to the southern village of El-Tiri for the burial of Mohamed al-Esseili, slain in last year's Lebanon war.

BEIRUT, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah claimed on Friday that Israel was behind the assassination of Lebanese politicians and urged feuding parties to agree on who should become president in order to end the country's crisis.

'Israel is the one who is carrying out the killings in Lebanon. It wants to stir discord and internal fighting in Lebanon,' he said at a rally to commemorate Jerusalem Day in Beirut's southern suburbs.

TYRE, Lebanon, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - A Hezbollah militant escaped an attempt on his life after he jumped from his car before a hand grenade exploded under the vehicle in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, police said.

Ahmed Mhanna tried to start his car when he heard an object falling from the vehicle which was parked near his home in Jbal al-Botm, east of the southern port city of Tyre, police said.

He leapt from the vehicle just in time to escape the explosion of the hand grenade which had been placed on the left front tyre. The car was damaged but he was unhurt.

BEIRUT, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - Top Hezbollah official Mohammed Fneish said on Sunday MPs in the Shiite party would not attend Tuesday's parliamentary session to elect a new president if no agreement was reached beforehand on a candidate.

'Without advance agreement on the name of the new president a quorum will not be assured -- and so far there is no accord' with the parliamentary majority, he told AFP.

Fneish was energy minister in the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora before he and five other pro-Syrian ministers resigned last November.

BEIRUT, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - Hezbollah, the leading party in Lebanon's pro-Syrian parliamentary opposition, condemned on Thursday the slaying of an anti-Damascus lawmaker.

The assassination of Antoine Ghanem in a car bombing on Wednesday was 'a blow to the country's security and stability as well as any attempt at reconciliation and hope toward reaching a political consensus,' it said.

Hezbollah called on the country's feuding political parties to respond to the killing by showing 'unity,' according to a statement issued by the group.

BEIRUT, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - The US ambassador to Lebanon said on Friday that there was clear evidence the Shiite militant group Hezbollah was still smuggling weapons across the Syrian border, in violation of UN resolutions.

'We find the evidence to be strong that arms smuggling is continuing across the Syrian-Lebanese border,' Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman told AFP, without giving any specific details.

'We are concerned by the reports and by the public statements by Hezbollah that Hezbollah has actively rearmed.'

BEIRUT, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - Cabling for private communications networks installed illegally by the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah in Beirut has been removed, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday.

'Minister of Telecommunications Marwan Ha madeh informed the government that... the cables which had been installed in Beirut have recently been removed,' Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after a cabinet meeting.

'It is necessary to continue the action in the other regions' where the cables have also been installed by the Shiite organisation, he told reporters.

WASHINGTON, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - The Hezbollah militant group could stage an attack on the United States if it believed the US posed a direct threat to the group or to its alleged backer Iran, the chief US spy Michael McConnell warned on Monday.

'We assess Lebanese Hezbollah, which has conducted anti-US attacks outside the United States in the past, may be more likely to consider attacking the homeland over the next three years if it perceives the United States as posing a direct threat to the group or Iran,' he said in written testimony to Congress.

BEIRUT, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - The Lebanese government is planning to take action against private communication networks installed by the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah, a cabinet minister said on Monday.

'We agreed to draw a plan of action for a peaceful resolution of this issue, but we are serious about resolving it because it is a dangerous matter,' Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

JERUSALEM, Aug 15, 2007 (AFP) - Israel must take seriously Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group which fought a war with the Jewish state last year, a senior minister said on Wednesday.

'We have to take Nasrallah seriously, he has never lied,' Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of Israel's powerful security cabinet, told army radio.

'He is arrogant, but he does what he says,' he said. 'If he says he has 2,000 rockets, I believe him, but I do not know what surprise he is alluding to.'