Lebanon's Hezbollah movement has blamed Israel for a car bomb attack which killed a senior official in the Lebanese port of Sidon on Monday.Ali Dib, also known as Khodr Salameh, was killed instantly when his car was destroyed by the blast in a suburb of the city.
Eyewitnesses say two bombs planted by the side of the road were simultaneously detonated as the car drove by.
No-one has admitted responsibility for the attack, and Israel has not yet commented on the incident.
Hezbollah officials have vowed revenge on Israel.
"This crime will not go unpunished, and Israel will regret having committed it," said Hezbollah official Nabil Qauk, speaking at the scene of the blast.
He described Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak as a "number one terrorist".
Security services were quoted as saying that a bomb placed in a car at the roadside could have been triggered by remote control as Ali Dib's car passed by.
Witnesses were quoted as saying an Israeli aircraft was seen overhead at the time of the blast.
History of attacks
Three years ago, two of Ali Dib's close relatives were killed while travelling in his car, when it was destroyed in an Israeli helicopter assault.
In June this year, Israel carried out its heaviest air raids against Lebanon for three years, targeting power stations and roads and killing at least eight people.
Israel warned more strikes were inevitable if Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon continued launching rocket attacks on Israel.
The June attacks were ordered by the government of outgoing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
His successor, Ehud Barak, has said he will end Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon as part of planned peace talks with Lebanon's powerful neighbour, Syria.
Since June, relative calm has prevailed in southern Lebanon.
But a BBC Correspondent in Lebanon says Hezbollah's vow of revenge suggests the period of calm may have come to an end.
Guerilla war
Hezbollah is leading a guerrilla war seeking to oust 1,500 Israeli soldiers and the 2,500 militiamen in the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army from the occupied zone.
Israel first invaded Lebanon in 1978, in retaliation against raids by Palestinian fighters.
It later pulled back, leaving the SLA to patrol much of the captured territory.
It invaded again in 1982, this time leaving its own troops to maintain its "security zone".
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