ISRAEL is braced for terrorist attacks worldwide after Hezbollah's fiery leader declared "open war" on the Jewish state which he blamed for the assassination of a notorious hijacker, bomber and kidnapper.
"Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, then let the whole world listen: Let this war be open," thundered Hezbollah's bearded chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
His call to arms was broadcast on a giant screen at the mass funeral in Beirut of Imad Mug
hniyeh, a shadowy Hezbollah special operations commander who was killed in a car-bombing in Syria on Wednesday.
Israel put its embassies and other missions around the world on high alert and beefed up its forces on the Lebanese border in response to the threats.
The alert would stay in place for weeks or months, Israeli security sources said.
The Israeli authorities also warned Israelis overseas to avoid congregating in large groups and warned they could be kidnapping targets.
"Death to America! Death to Israel!" crowds chanted as Mughniyeh's coffin was paraded through the streets to Hezbollah's Martyrs' Cemetery.
Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, was the guest of honour, highlighting the terrorist's close ties to the Islamic Republic.
Referring to Israel, Mr Mottaki said the killing would "shorten the lifespan of those criminals".
He warned that Mughniyeh was not "the first martyr, nor will he be the last on his path. There will be hundreds and millions more like him".
Mughniyeh – nicknamed the Osama bin Laden of the 1980s – was blamed for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers and the kidnappings of Britons Terry Waite and John McCarthy, among others.
"The blood of Imad Mughniyeh will contribute to the disappearance of the Jewish state," Nasrallah declared.
