Hezbollah’s Top Commander Killed by Car Bomb in Syria
PJM Roundup: The BBC reports that the Lebanese group Hezbollah says one of its top leaders, Imad Mughniyeh, has died in a bombing in Damascus. Death of the 'original Bin Laden' (First Post) List of Attacks He Was Responsible For (Haaretz) Hezbollah Blames Israel (AP) Israel Elevates Alert on Lebanese, Syrian Borders, Airlines and Embassies Worldwide (Debka) Israel Denies Any Involvement; Heavy Gunfire Breaks Out in Shia-Dominated Suburbs of Beirut (Times Online) More at the jump...
[New items on top -- Meir Javedanfar's analysis here]
Haaretz: “Hezbollah terror chief was more wanted than Nasrallah”
Middle East Strategy @ Harvard: “The timing of the assassination, from the perspective of Lebanese of all political stripes, could not have been worse. Tomorrow, after all, is the anniversary of the assassination of a great figure on the other side of Lebanon’s current political divide, former prime minister Rafik Hariri. One hopes that calm heads will prevail and that any ostentatious rallies in Hariri’s honor are postponed. At last year’s mass rally, ugly sectarian chants broke out, and surely given Beirut’s current tension, such chants could easily devolve into open violence.”
Fausta’s Blog: “Wretchard points out that Mughniyeh’s demise came on the anniversary of Rafik Hariri’s death. Coincidence? Not at all.”
Jane’s Security News: Who did it? An alternative view
JPost: “Less known than Osama Bin Laden but considered a greater outlaw, Mughniyeh was implicated in the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut which killed over 350 as well as the 1994 bombing of the Israelite Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people and the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in the same city which killed 29. He also apparently had strong ties with Al Qaida.”
Hot Air: “The site of the bombing: Damascus. Did the Israelis finally get him or did he outlive his usefulness to Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah?”
Time’s Middle East Blog: “As Robert Baer, who hunted Mugniyeh for years as a CIA officer, describes Mughniyeh, ‘He is the most dangerous terrorist we’ve ever faced. He is probably the most intelligent, most capable operative we’ve ever run across, including the KGB or anybody else. He enters by one door, exits by another, changes his cars daily, never makes appointments on a telephone, never is predictable. He only uses people that are related to him that he can trust. He doesn’t just recruit people. He is the master terrorist, the grail that we have been after since 1983.’”
Belmont Club: “It was widely believed that Hezbollah was girding for another rocket assault on Israel. It had recently been resupplied with rockets, shipped under the label of civilian supplies, past the UN Peacekeeping force. Hezbollah was also supposed to have sent reconnaissance teams disguised as journalist to the Lebanese/Israeli border to obtain video footage of certain areas. The strike on Mughniyeh suggests that parallel counterpreparations mirroring those of Hezbollah were simultaneously in progress.”
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3 Comments
1. Anthony (Los Angeles):I think the Mossad did this. But, whoever got Mughniyeh, the civilized world owes them thanks.
Feb 13, 2008 - 9:41 am 2. David W. Lincoln:Just as those who were under the heel of Heydrich smiled when he met his end, so too can people today.
Mughniyeh was the Heydrich of today,
and today is a good day now that we
do not have to worry about his plottings any longer.
Feb 13, 2008 - 10:59 am 3. Hotpatch 6:So, who gets the reward? Whoever it is, it should be tripled!! Maybe we should hire the Mossad to get OBL. They are not bothered by minor annoyances, like international borders, and they are dogged in their pursuit.
Feb 13, 2008 - 2:13 pm