Lebanese militant leader Samir Kantar was killed by an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital of Damascus, the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group said on Sunday. As a teenager, he had been convicted for the murder of three Israelis, including a 4-year-old girl. Kantar was known in Lebanon as “The Dean of Lebanese Prisoners” for serving the longest-ever sentence of 29 years in Israel. He was among nine people killed in the strike in suburban Jaramana on Saturday night.

According to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, two Israeli warplanes violated Syrian airspace and fired four long-range missiles at the building in which Kantar lived. The militant’s brother Bassam confirmed his death on Twitter, saying: “We are proud to have joined the long list of families of martyrs.”

After serving a three-decade sentence, Kantar was freed by Israel in 2008 as part of a prisoner swap, following which he became a prominent Hezbollah figure .