Hassan al-Laqis, a senior commander of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia militant group, has been gun down outside his home on Wednesday in southern Beirut.

The Iranian-backed group has quickly blamed the attack on arch-enemy Israel while Israeli officials denied any involvement.

Hezbollah ceremoniously announced the death of Hassan al-Laqis and described him as one of the founding members of the group, suggesting he was a high-level commander close to the Shiite party's leadership.

An official close to Hezbollah said al-Laqis held some of the group's most sensitive portfolios and was close to the group's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

CEOAFRICA gathered that his death comes as Lebanon faces increasing sectarian violence pouring over from the civil war in neighboring Syria, where Hezbollah forces fight alongside President Bashar Assad's troops, angering mainly Sunni rebels seeking to oust him.

Hezbollah strongholds is said to have been the target of car bomb attacks and that suicide bombers attacked the Iranian Embassy in Beirut last month, killing 23 people.

Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for those attacks, calling it retaliation for Hezbollah's involvement in Syria.

However, Hezbollah is said to have revealed in a statement that al-Laqis was killed as he returned home from work around midnight.