Editing Imad Mughniyeh (section)

{{Short description|Lebanese militant leader (1962–2008)}}
{{Update|date=October 2024|reason=Subject of this article has been mentioned very recently}}
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{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Imad Mughniyeh
| nationality         = [[Lebanese nationality law|Lebanese]]
| image               = Imad Mughniyeh.jpeg
| caption             = Mughniyeh in the 2000s
| imagesize           = 250px
| office              = [[Hezbollah]] Chief of Staff
| term_start          =
| term_end            = 2008
| vicepresident       =
| predecessor         = Unknown
| successor           = [[Mustafa Badreddine]]
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1962|12|07|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Tayr Dibba]], Lebanon
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|2008|2|12|1962|08|30|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Kafr Sousa]], [[Damascus]], Syria
| constituency        =
| children            = 7, including [[Jihad Mughniyah|Jihad]], and [[Mustafa Mughniyah|Mustafa]]
| party               = {{flag|Hezbollah}}
| occupation          = [[Assassin]], [[revolutionary|revolutionarist]], [[jihadist|militant jihadist]]
| order2              =
| term_start2         =
| term_end2           =
| president           =
| predecessor2        =
| successor2          =
| native_name         = {{Nobold|{{lang|ar|عماد مغنية}}}}
}}
{{Hezbollah}}
'''Imad Fayez Mughniyeh''' ({{langx|ar|عماد فايز مغنية}}{{lrm}}; 7 December 1962 – 12 February 2008),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://m.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20111122.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517005636/https://m.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20111122.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=2018-05-17|title=Anti-Terrorism Designation; Anti-Terrorism Designation Removal|website=m.treasury.gov}}</ref> also known by his [[nom de guerre]] '''al-Hajj Radwan''' ({{lang|ar|الحاج رضوان}}), was a [[Lebanese people|Lebanese]] militant leader who was the founding member of [[Lebanon]]'s [[Islamic Jihad Organization]] and number two in [[Hezbollah]]'s leadership. He is believed to have been Hezbollah's chief of staff and overseer of  its military, intelligence, and security apparatus. He has been described as a skilled military tactician and a highly elusive figure. He was often referred to as an ‘untraceable ghost’.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/who-was-imad-mughniyeh|title=Who Was Imad Mughniyeh?|website=www.washingtoninstitute.org|language=en|access-date=2018-02-15|archive-date=16 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180216025840/http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/who-was-imad-mughniyeh|url-status=live}}</ref>

U.S. and Israeli officials say Mughniyeh was directly and personally involved in terrorist attacks and the mastermind of many suicide bombings, murders, kidnappings, and assassinations. Mughniyeh formed [[Unit 121]] as Hezbollah's covert assassination squad and he was behind the [[1983 Beirut barracks bombing]] and [[1983 United States embassy bombing]], in which over 350 people were killed, as well as the kidnapping of dozens of foreigners in Lebanon in the 1980s.<ref>{{Citation |last=McPherson |first=Alan |title=Homicide Squad |date=2019-09-21 |work=Ghosts of Sheridan Circle |pages=87–102 |url=https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469653501.003.0008 |access-date=2025-02-20 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-5350-1}}</ref> He was indicted in [[Argentina]] for his  role in the 1992 [[Israeli embassy attack in Buenos Aires]]. The highest-profile attacks he was involved in occurred in the early 1980s when Mughniyeh was in his early twenties. U.S. intelligence officials accused him of killing more [[United States]] citizens than any other man prior to the [[11 September attacks]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Lebanon&article=662|title=The Arab American News – Mughnieh murder could trigger retaliation|work=arabamericannews.com|date=10 January 2009|access-date=22 March 2008|archive-date=6 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306020337/http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Lebanon&article=662|url-status=live}}</ref>

Mughniyeh was known by his ''nom de guerre'' Al-Hajj Radwan. He was included in the European Union's list of wanted terrorists<ref>European Union, Council Common Position 2001/931/CFSP of 27 December 2001 on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism [http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l33208.htm Freezing funds: list of terrorists and terrorist groups] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060828013456/http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l33208.htm |date=28 August 2006 }} Accessed 17 August 2006</ref><ref>Council Common Position 2005/427/CFSP of 6 June 2005 [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32005E0427:EN:HTML Official Journal L 144, 08/06/2005 P. 0054 – 0058] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314111815/http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32005E0427:EN:HTML |date=14 March 2012 }} Accessed 17 August 2006</ref><ref name="eur-lex.europa.eu">COUNCIL COMMON POSITION 2005/847/CFSP of 29 November 2005 [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_314/l_31420051130en00410045.pdf Official Journal of the European Union] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090815175439/http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_314/l_31420051130en00410045.pdf |date=15 August 2009 }} Accessed 17 August 2006</ref> and had a US$5 million bounty on the [[FBI Most Wanted Terrorists]] list.<ref name=beirutcnn>{{cite news|title=Reputed terrorist long sought by CIA killed in explosion|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/13/hezbollah/index.html?iref=mpstoryview|access-date=12 January 2013|newspaper=CNN|date=14 February 2008|location=Beirut|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071107/http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/13/hezbollah/index.html?iref=mpstoryview|url-status=live}}</ref> To many in his home country, Lebanon and the Middle East, he is a national symbol and hero.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/killing-imad-mughniyeh-legend-150202054051719.html|title=Killing Imad Mughniyeh made him a legend|last=Fromm|first=Charles|website=www.aljazeera.com|access-date=2018-02-15|archive-date=16 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180216143822/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/killing-imad-mughniyeh-legend-150202054051719.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

As part of a joint [[CIA]]&ndash;[[Mossad]] operation,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-and-mossad-killed-senior-hezbollah-figure-in-car-bombing/2015/01/30/ebb88682-968a-11e4-8005-1924ede3e54a_story.html|title=CIA and Mossad killed senior Hezbollah figure in car bombing|last1=Goldman|first1=Adam|date=2015-01-30|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2018-02-16|last2=Nakashima|first2=Ellen|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=10 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210002525/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-and-mossad-killed-senior-hezbollah-figure-in-car-bombing/2015/01/30/ebb88682-968a-11e4-8005-1924ede3e54a_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/mughniyeh-assassination-cia-115049|title=Why the CIA Killed Imad Mughniyeh|work=POLITICO Magazine|access-date=2018-02-15|archive-date=3 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203155539/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/mughniyeh-assassination-cia-115049/|url-status=live}}</ref> Mughniyeh was assassinated on the night of 12 February 2008 by a [[car bomb]] that was detonated as he passed by on foot,<ref name="WP013015" /> in the [[Kafr Sousa]] neighbourhood of [[Damascus]], [[Syria]].<ref name="reuters2">{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1350754620080213|title=Hezbollah's most wanted commander killed in Syria bomb|date=13 February 2008|access-date=13 February 2008|publisher=Reuters|archive-date=18 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218035939/http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1350754620080213|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Telegraph2">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/13/whizbollah213.xml|title=Israel denies assassinating Hezbollah chief|last=Powell|first=Robyn|date=13 February 2008|work=[[Daily Telegraph]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080215010927/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2008%2F02%2F13%2Fwhizbollah213.xml|archive-date=15 February 2008|url-status=dead|author2=Chivers, Tom|location=London|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="jpost.com2">[http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=207767] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222081647/http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=207767|date=22 December 2012}}, "Will Hezbullah avenge the hit on its terror chief?" by Yaakov Katz, 11 February 2011</ref>