A former official in the Lebanese Hezbollah party was found dead in his apartment in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the state-run Lebanese news agency said on Sunday. Security forces immediately opened an investigation and were awaiting the arrival of a forensic doctor to determine the cause of death, the National News Agency said, giving only the initials of the man. A Hezbollah official who requested anonymity confirmed the death of Ali Hatoum and told Reuters an investigation was underway but that it did not appear to be security related. The news agency gave no other information nor what position the deceased had held in the Iran-backed party. Hezbollah and the Israeli army exchanged cross-border fire on September 1 after a drone attack in a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern Beirut suburbs in the fiercest shelling exchange between the two adversaries since the 2006 Lebanon war. Hezbollah had blamed Israel for the drone attack and its leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that it could be a precursor to assassination attacks by Israel.