Hezbollah chief in rare appearance ahead of Ashura
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah made a rare public appearance on Monday in the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs, addressing thousands of his supporters ahead of the Shiite Ashura commemorations.
As he appeared on stage wearing a black robe and turban, the crowd seen in a live broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television began cheering wildly, as they apparently had not expected to see him.
Nasrallah's address Monday came ahead of the peak of Ashura, a festival that marks the killing of Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures of Shiite Islam and grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. Hussein was killed at the hands of soldiers of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD, an event that lies at the heart of Islam's sectarian divide into Shiite and Sunni sects.
