Hezbollah head's killing, Syria denies probe

Syria has denied media reports on the formation of a joint committee with Iran and Hezbollah to investigate the assassination of Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyah, the official SANA news agency reported.

The news agency quoted an official saying that such reports are baseless. Only the Syrian authorities are conducting the investigation into the assassination, it said.

Moughniyah was killed in a car bombing in a residential neighbourhood of Damascus late on Tuesday. Hezbollah accused Israel of ordering the assassination, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office denied involvement.

Moughniyah was accused of bombing the US embassy in Lebanon in 1983, in which 63 Americans and Lebanese were killed. Washington of bombing the US marines barrack in Beirut, in which 241 died and the bombing of French barracks that killed 58 soldiers also accused him.

Moughniyah, who was on the FBI wanted list with a $5 million bounty on his head, was also claimed by Israel to have been involved in planning the 1992 bombing of Israeli embassy in Argentina. The explosion killed 29 people.

He was also involved in the blast two years later at the Buenos Aires Jewish centre that killed 95 people.