A TV grab from al-Manar Hezbollah TV shows an undated portrait of slain leader Imad Moughniyeh February 13, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIRUT, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri on Wednesday denounced the assassination of Hezbollah official Imad Moughniyah, local Naharnet news website reported.

    The Moughniyah assassination adds to challenges confronted by Lebanon since the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafik Hariri, Saad Hariri was quoted as saying in a statement released by his press office.

    Such challenges, Hariri noted, included the 2006 Israeli aggression against the Lebanese people and their state.

    Various Lebanese factions should unite to safeguard national unity, support the state and its institutions and re-launch dialogue, irrespective of difficulties, he added.

    Moughniyah was killed in a car bombing in a residential neighborhood of the Syrian capital of Damascus late on Tuesday, Hezbollah officials said.

    Moughniyah, 45, known as Hajj Radwan, had been in hiding for years. He was indicted in the U.S. for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a navy diver died.

    He is accused by Washington of the bombing of U.S. embassy in Lebanon in 1983, in which 63 Americans and Lebanese were killed, the bombing of U.S. marines barrack in Beirut, in which 241 died and the bombing of French barracks which killed 58 soldiers.

    Hezbollah has called on its supporters to join a funeral procession for Moughniyah in Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday, the same day the pro-government majority March 14 coalition is planning to hold a rally to commemorate the third anniversary of Rafik Hariri's assassination in Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut.