By Kinda Makieh and Firas Makdesi
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Flags flew at half-mast in Damascus on Sunday and residents said they were still shocked after the killing of Hezbollah's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose fighters helped Syria's army reclaim large parts of the country during its brutal civil war.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, amid a significant escalation in the hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli military playing out in parallel with the Gaza war.
Syria announced three days of national mourning, with President Bashar al-Assad saying on Sunday that Nasrallah would "remain in the memory of Syrians".
In Damascus, residents expressed disbelief over Israel's killing of Nasrallah.
"He can't die. He always dreamed of martyrdom, and while this is fitting, it's still so hard to accept," said Marwa Barkouka. "He remains alive, not just as a martyr but because he lives inside us. We grew up with him here."
Syria's conflict erupted in 2011 with protests against Assad. Nasrallah in 2012 called for reform in the country, but by the next year said that Hezbollah would fight alongside Assad to prevent Syria falling to Sunni jihadi radicals, the United States and Israel.
Many credit Hezbollah's intervention for key victories, first along Syria's border with Lebanon and later on in other cities.
"For us, this man was like an entire nation. We had dignity, and now it's gone," said Ibrahim Al-Ahmad, another resident of Damascus.
But the armed group's intervention in Syria - alongside Assad's state allies Iran and Russia - also further strained relationships with the Sunni Arab world and deepened sectarian ties across the region.
Assad was shunned by the broader Arab world for a decade but Syria was welcomed back into the Arab League last year. The Arab League said last year it would cease calling Hezbollah a "terrorist organization," but ties with the Gulf remained strained.
"For someone of his stature, the entire Arab nation didn't defend him; they left him," said Baker Haidar Al-Wasiti, another Damascus resident. "We grew up hearing his voice. We always looked to him to lift our spirits," he said.