Lebanon's top Shia cleric and influential sheikh has died aged 75 after an illness, a hospital official said.A spokesman at Behnam hospital south of Beirut, where Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah was being treated, confirmed his death.
Fadlallah's media office did not confirm the statement but said an "important announcement" is being prepared.
Fadlallah was in hospital for the past two weeks but his condition deteriorated on Friday when complications from a liver problem led to an internal haemorrhage.
Iraqi-born Fadlallah has followings in Lebanon and Iraq. He was described as a spiritual leader of the militant group Hezbollah - a claim both he and the group denied.
Fadlallah's spokesman Hani Abdullah later confirmed his death to journalists gathered outside Behman hospital. He said a detailed announcement would be made at a press conference later today.
Outside the hospital and at the Al-Hassanayn mosque in Beirut's suburb of Haret Hreik, where Fadlallah gave religious lessons and Friday sermons, black banners were being hung up in a sign of mourning. Scores of his supporters, including women, wept openly.
Fadlallah's Al-Bashaer radio station and Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station broadcast Koranic verses as news of his death broke.
The cleric suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure. In November 2009, he underwent a minor procedure measuring blood flow to the heart and three months later was taken to hospital for a medical check-up.
A grandfatherly figure, Fadlallah was known for his courageous fatwas, or religious edits - including one that gave women the right to hit back at their husbands if they attacked them.
SIC: BT