Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, has called the three high-ranking Syrian officials killed in a blast on Wednesday, "comrades" in the struggle against Israel.

Nasrallah's address to hundreds of supporters in a Beirut square via video from an undisclosed location, came after Syrian TV confirmed the deaths of Defence Minister Dawoud Rajha, a former army general and the most senior government official to be killed; General Assef Shawkat, the deputy defence minister who was married to Assad's elder sister, Bushra, and Hassan Turkmani, a former defence minister.

This army and these leaders had done favours for the resistance movements in Lebanon, Palestine and the area. We will miss them. We offer our condolences to the Syrian leadership, to the Syrian army, to the Syrian people and their families.