Lebanon's Hezbollah said Saturday that Islamist extremists were responsible for killing the Shiite militant group's top military commander in Syria in an artillery attack.

"An investigation has shown that the blast that targeted one of our positions near the Damascus international airport that led to the martyrdom of the brother commander Mustafa Badreddine was caused by artillery bombardment carried out by takfiri (Sunni extremist) groups present in that region," a Hezbollah statement said.