A senior Iranian cleric says it is disgraceful to see the US and Israel rejoicing at the news of Imad Mugniyah's assassination.

"These are people who are supposedly leading the fight against terrorism yet they express happiness over the murder of such an outstanding figure," said Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday.

These are the same people who have occupied Iraq and Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Logically they should have been condemning this act of terror yet they openly show their joy, he added.

Mugniyah, a top Hezbollah commander, was killed Tuesday night in a car bombing in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

After Mugniyah's assassination, thousands of articles began surfacing in newspapers in the West and the Arab world, which stop at nothing to smear this 'great man' who is no longer here to defend himself, Hashemi-Rafsanjani said.

The cleric called on Mugniyah's comrades to not allow anyone to tarnish his good name.

MJ/HGH/RE