BEIRUT - While commenting on Friday about the downing of an military helicopter that left an army officer dead on Thursday, Hezbollah described the incident as "regrettable and distressing."

"We ask that all political parties refrain from baseless speculation on the incident whose circumstances remain unknown," Hezbollah said in a statement.

First Lieutenant Samer Hanna, 25, was killed when his helicopter was hit by gunfire on Thursday during a training mission in a region known as a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon. The finger of blame was being pointed at Lebanon's Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement on Friday over the incident.