Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah was one of the founders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's Dawa party. He was also believed to be the party's religious guide until his death on Sunday following a long illness.

A 100-member Iraqi delegation took part in his funeral south of Beirut on Tuesday that drew tens of thousands of mourners.

Al-Maliki rarely travels outside Iraq. After landing in Beirut, he headed straight from the airport to the mosque where Fadallah was buried.

The 75-year-old cleric was one of Shiite Islam's highest and most revered religious authorities with a following that stretched beyond Lebanon's borders to Iraq, the Gulf and as far away as central Asia.