Fadlallah, known for his staunch anti-American stance, was one of the founders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's governing Dawa Party and was believed to be its religious guide until the last days of his life.

He was described in the 1980s as a spiritual leader of Hezbollah.

Fadlallah was born in Iraq in 1935 and lived until the age of 30 in Najaf ,where he was considered among the top preachers.

His family was originally from the southern Lebanese village of Ainata and he later moved to Lebanon, where he started lecturing on religion.

During Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, he was linked to men who kidnapped Americans and other Westerners, and bombed the US Embassy and Marine base in Lebanon, killing more than 260 Americans.

Although he denied involvement in those events, he contended such acts were justifiable when the door is closed to dialogue.

Fadlallah escaped several assassination attempts, including a March 1985 car bomb near his home in the Bir El-Abed district of south Beirut that killed 80 people. In Lebanon, the CIA was widely believed to have been behind the bombing.

Despite being a harsh critic of US policy, he condemned the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States as acts of terror.

During Israel’s war on Lebanon in 2006, Israeli warplanes bombed his two-story house in Beirut's Haret Hreik neighborhood. Fadlallah was not at home at the time of the bombing, which reduced the house to rubble.