Protests took place on Saturday in multiple countries mourning the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah.
Mr. Nasrallah, who was killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike that leveled several residential buildings near Beirut, the Lebanese capital, was a towering figure not only in Lebanon but across the Middle East.
Over his 32 years leading the organization, and with the support of Iran, he built Hezbollah into a domestic political force and one of the most heavily armed nonstate forces in the world. Mr. Nasrallah was opposed to Israel, which he called “the Zionist entity,” and maintained that there should be one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews and Christians. A powerful orator, he was beloved among many Shiite Muslims, a historically marginalized group in the Arab world, and created a state within a state in Lebanon that provided social services.
Protesters gathered on Saturday not only in Lebanon, but also in Iran, in the West Bank and elsewhere to mourn his assassination.
Some communities also welcomed Mr. Nasrallah’s death, including those in Lebanon who felt he used Hezbollah’s power to take the entire country hostage to his own interests, or those in places like Syria, where Hezbollah’s fighters had helped shore up the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria when it was threatened by a popular uprising.
But for many, his death came as a huge, almost unthinkable shock.
In Iran, which announced five days of mourning for Mr. Nasrallah, protesters gathered in Palestine Square in Tehran.
Lebanese and Palestinian men displayed photos of Mr. Nasrallah at a protest in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. The announcement of the Hezbollah leader’s death set off screams and tears in parts of Beirut, the capital, on Saturday.
Mourners also gathered in Pakistan, where during one protest people shouted anti-Israel and anti-U.S. slogans, and in Srinagar, the capital of the disputed Kashmir region in India.
Protesters held a vigil for Mr. Nasrallah in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, near a bridge leading to the heavily fortified neighborhood in the heart of the city known as the Green Zone.
Demonstrators gathered in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank.
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