P
Patriot Games
Guest
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330525,00.html
Imad Mughniyeh, Leading Hezbollah Official Wanted by U.S., Killed in Car
Bomb
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Fugitive militant Imad Mughniyeh, a top U.S. target
suspected in the killings of hundreds of Americans as well as a series of
infamous strikes against U.S., Israeli and Jewish targets, was killed by
Israeli agents, Hezbollah said Wednesday.
Israel denied involvement in the assassination.
The militant group did not say how he died, but an Iranian government-owned
television station said he was killed in a recent car bomb in Syria. His
killing would be a significant blow to Hezbollah, which fought the Israelis
in the 2006 war in Lebanon, and its Iranian and Syrian backers.
Israel's government declined comment on the matter.
Mughniyeh, who had been in hiding for years, was among the fugitives
indicted in the United States for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in
which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. He was also suspected of masterminding
attacks that killed more than 200 Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s when he
was then the Iranian-backed Hezbollah's security chief.
Mughniyeh, 45, is also believed by Israel to have been involved in planning
the 1992 bombing of Israel's embassy in Argentina in which 29 people were
killed and the blast at a Buenos Aires Jewish center two years later that
killed 95.
"With all pride we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic resistance
in Lebanon joining the martyrs ... The brother commander hajj Imad Mughinyeh
became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis," said a statement
carried on Hezbollah television.
The announcement came a few hours after a late night explosion in Damascus
destroyed a vehicle. Witnesses in the Syrian capital said at the time that a
passerby was killed as security forces sealed off the area and removed the
body, but authorities there would not give details.
Iran's English-language satellite station Press TV on Wednesday said the
person slain in the Damascus explosion turned out to be Mughniyeh. It said
an Iranian school and a Syrian intelligence office were in the same area of
Kafar Soussa where the explosion occurred.
Mughinyeh's killing is the first major attack against a leader of Hezbollah
since the 1992 helicopter strike that killed the Hezbollah secretary-general
Sheik Abbas Mussawi in southern Lebanon.
If Israel proves to be involved in the assassination it would mark a bold
move by the Israelis inside Syria.
Hamas, the militant Palestinian group which is backed by Iran and its top
leaders based in Damascus, spoke out against the assassination.
"We condemn this crime and we emphasize the Muslim nation must rise up to
confront the Zionist devil which is back by the Americans," said Hamas
spokesman in Gaza, Samir Abu Zuhri.
Hezbollah's al-Manar television, which broke into Quranic verses after the
announcement, and said a funeral will be held on Thursday.
The announcement said Mughniyeh for 20 years has been the target of
"Zionists and oppressors" - in Hezbollah and Iranian parlance a reference to
Israel and the United States.
Mughniyeh also was suspected of being behind the kidnappings of Westerners,
the suicide attacks against the U.S. Embassy and the Marine base in Lebanon
in the 1980s, bombings that killed more than 260 Americans.
Mughniyeh was Hezbollah security chief during that turbulent period in
Lebanon's civil war. Little has been known about him since the end of the
15-year conflict and Hezbollah has regularly refused to talk about him.
Wednesday's announcement of his death was the first mention of him in years.
But American intelligence officials have described Mughniyeh as Hezbollah's
operations chief, who was believed to have moved between Lebanon, Syria and
Iran in disguise.
Mughniyeh's last public appearance was believed to be at the funeral of his
brother Fuad, who was killed on Dec. 12, 1994, when a booby-trapped car blew
up in the southern suburb of Beirut.
In 2006, Mughniyeh was reported to have met with hardline Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Syria. Tehran and the country's paramilitary
Revolutionary Guards have never publicly disclosed the extent of their links
with their protege Hezbollah.
Imad Mughniyeh, Leading Hezbollah Official Wanted by U.S., Killed in Car
Bomb
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Fugitive militant Imad Mughniyeh, a top U.S. target
suspected in the killings of hundreds of Americans as well as a series of
infamous strikes against U.S., Israeli and Jewish targets, was killed by
Israeli agents, Hezbollah said Wednesday.
Israel denied involvement in the assassination.
The militant group did not say how he died, but an Iranian government-owned
television station said he was killed in a recent car bomb in Syria. His
killing would be a significant blow to Hezbollah, which fought the Israelis
in the 2006 war in Lebanon, and its Iranian and Syrian backers.
Israel's government declined comment on the matter.
Mughniyeh, who had been in hiding for years, was among the fugitives
indicted in the United States for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in
which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. He was also suspected of masterminding
attacks that killed more than 200 Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s when he
was then the Iranian-backed Hezbollah's security chief.
Mughniyeh, 45, is also believed by Israel to have been involved in planning
the 1992 bombing of Israel's embassy in Argentina in which 29 people were
killed and the blast at a Buenos Aires Jewish center two years later that
killed 95.
"With all pride we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic resistance
in Lebanon joining the martyrs ... The brother commander hajj Imad Mughinyeh
became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis," said a statement
carried on Hezbollah television.
The announcement came a few hours after a late night explosion in Damascus
destroyed a vehicle. Witnesses in the Syrian capital said at the time that a
passerby was killed as security forces sealed off the area and removed the
body, but authorities there would not give details.
Iran's English-language satellite station Press TV on Wednesday said the
person slain in the Damascus explosion turned out to be Mughniyeh. It said
an Iranian school and a Syrian intelligence office were in the same area of
Kafar Soussa where the explosion occurred.
Mughinyeh's killing is the first major attack against a leader of Hezbollah
since the 1992 helicopter strike that killed the Hezbollah secretary-general
Sheik Abbas Mussawi in southern Lebanon.
If Israel proves to be involved in the assassination it would mark a bold
move by the Israelis inside Syria.
Hamas, the militant Palestinian group which is backed by Iran and its top
leaders based in Damascus, spoke out against the assassination.
"We condemn this crime and we emphasize the Muslim nation must rise up to
confront the Zionist devil which is back by the Americans," said Hamas
spokesman in Gaza, Samir Abu Zuhri.
Hezbollah's al-Manar television, which broke into Quranic verses after the
announcement, and said a funeral will be held on Thursday.
The announcement said Mughniyeh for 20 years has been the target of
"Zionists and oppressors" - in Hezbollah and Iranian parlance a reference to
Israel and the United States.
Mughniyeh also was suspected of being behind the kidnappings of Westerners,
the suicide attacks against the U.S. Embassy and the Marine base in Lebanon
in the 1980s, bombings that killed more than 260 Americans.
Mughniyeh was Hezbollah security chief during that turbulent period in
Lebanon's civil war. Little has been known about him since the end of the
15-year conflict and Hezbollah has regularly refused to talk about him.
Wednesday's announcement of his death was the first mention of him in years.
But American intelligence officials have described Mughniyeh as Hezbollah's
operations chief, who was believed to have moved between Lebanon, Syria and
Iran in disguise.
Mughniyeh's last public appearance was believed to be at the funeral of his
brother Fuad, who was killed on Dec. 12, 1994, when a booby-trapped car blew
up in the southern suburb of Beirut.
In 2006, Mughniyeh was reported to have met with hardline Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Syria. Tehran and the country's paramilitary
Revolutionary Guards have never publicly disclosed the extent of their links
with their protege Hezbollah.
