Editing Imad Mughniyeh (section)

==Early life==
Mughniyeh was born in the village of [[Tayr Debba|Tayr Dibba]], near [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], on 7 December 1962 to a peasant family of Lebanon's southern Shi'a heartland.<ref name=Peraino/><ref name=glass16feb>{{cite news|last=Glass|first=Charles|title=Obituary of Imad Mougnieh: Elusive Hizbollah leader|url=http://www.charlesglass.net/archives/2008/02/obituary_of_ima.html|access-date=9 April 2013|newspaper=The Independent|date=16 February 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201213438/http://www.charlesglass.net/archives/2008/02/obituary_of_ima.html|archive-date=1 February 2014|df=dmy-all}}</ref> His father's name was Fayez.<ref name=The_driver>{{cite web |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/29/the-driver/ |title=The driver |first=Mark |last=Perry |date=29 April 2013 |work=[[Foreign Policy]] |access-date=25 January 2015 |archive-date=25 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150125141516/http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/29/the-driver/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He was mistakenly thought to be the son of Jawad  Mughniyeh, a religious cleric. <ref name=ash13feb/> His birth date had also been given as July 1962.<ref name=eid>{{cite journal |last=Kazemzadeh |first=Masoud |author2=Gabriel Emile Eid|title=An Analysis of the Assassination of the Lebanese Hezbollah Commander Imad Mughniyah: Hypotheses and Consequences |journal=American Foreign Policy Interests |year=2008 |volume=30 |issue=6 |pages=399–413 |doi=10.1080/10803920802569324|s2cid=154511473  |issn = 1080-3920}}</ref> Mughniyeh had two younger brothers, Jihad and Fouad.<ref name=glass16feb/><ref name=ash13feb/> About a decade after Mughniyeh's birth,  the family moved  to southern [[Beirut]].<ref name=The_driver/> [[CIA]] South Group records state that Mughniyeh lived in Ayn Al-Dilbah in South Beirut.<ref name = "Baer">{{cite book |last=Baer |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Baer |year=2002|title=See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism|publisher=Three Rivers Press|location=New York|isbn=1-4000-4684-X}} p. 98–99</ref> Mughniyeh was described  a popular boy and a "natural entertainer" who cracked jokes at family weddings and "worked the crowd with a confidence unusual for a youth his age."<ref name=Peraino>{{cite news|title=The Fox is Hunted Down|author=Kevin Peraino|newspaper=Newsweek|url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/112771?from=rss|date=25 February 2008|access-date=7 August 2010|archive-date=16 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816103316/http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/02/16/the-fox-is-hunted-down.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Mughniyeh and his cousin [[Mustafa Badreddine]] joined  Fatah at an early age.<ref name=meiramit>{{cite web|title=Hezbollah: Portrait of a Terrorist Organization|url=http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20436/E_158_12_1231723028.pdf|publisher=The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center|access-date=12 January 2013|date=18 December 2012|archive-date=24 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181124220058/https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20436/E_158_12_1231723028.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Mughniyeh was discovered by fellow Lebanese Ali Abu Hassan Deeb (who would later become a Hezbollah leader) and quickly rose through the ranks of the movement.<ref name = Akhbar/> In the mid-1970s, Mugniyeh organized the "Student Brigade," a unit of 100 young men which became part of [[Yasser Arafat]]'s elite [[Force 17]].<ref name=Peraino/> Mughniyeh temporarily left Fatah in 1981 due to differences of opinion on the regime of [[Saddam Hussein]]. Mughniyeh, a religious Shiite, was upset by the murder of the Iraqi Grand [[Ayatollah]] [[Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr]] in 1980 as well as a previous attempt by the Iraqi intelligence on the life of Lebanese Ayatollah [[Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah]].<ref name=Akhbar>{{cite news|url= http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/4445|title= بعض من سيرة ساحر المقاومة (About the life of the magician of the resistance)|newspaper= Al Akhbar|author= Ibrahim al-Amin|date= 17 February 2012|access-date= 10 November 2011|archive-date= 30 September 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110930110139/http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/4445|url-status= live}}</ref>

Fatah was formally allied with the [[Lebanese National Movement]], which included the pro-Iraqi branch of the [[Ba'ath Party]]. Mughniyeh was forced to leave  Fatah after  armed confrontations with Ba’th  activists. He and his comrades  organized a body guard unit for Ayatollah Fadlallah and other Shiite clerics in Lebanon. Mughniyeh accompanied Ayatollah Fadlallah on a [[Hajj]] pilgrimage in 1980 and thus earned his Hajj title.<ref name=Akhbar/>

Mughniyeh was briefly a student in the engineering department at the [[American University of Beirut]].<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|first=James|last=Risen|title=A Nation Challenged: A Suspect; U.S. Traces Iran's Ties to Terror Through a Lebanese|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEFDB1138F934A25752C0A9649C8B63&|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=17 January 2002|access-date=13 February 2008|archive-date=21 April 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421062213/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEFDB1138F934A25752C0A9649C8B63&|url-status=live}}</ref> After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he rejoined Fatah. He was wounded  in the fighting in
West Beirut. After the withdrawal of PLO forces from Beirut in September 1982, Mughniyeh played a key role in resisting the [[Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon|Israeli occupation]], revealing the location of Fatah arms caches. He remained a Fatah member during this period but also worked the leftist Lebanese National Movement and Islamic resistance groups. In 1984, he joined the newly created Islamic Resistance of [[Hezbollah]]. However, he remained close to Fatah leader [[Khalil al-Wazir]] (Abu Jihad) until the latter's assassination in 1988. He  remained committed to the Palestine cause throughout his life and founded Hezbollah's secret "Committee for Elimination of Israel" in 2000.<ref>Mughniya: "After the liberation in 2000, when it became easier for us to learn more about the enemy, and our own capabilities, the dream of liberating Palestine appeared possible to achieve. We had established a committee for the elimination of Israel (لجنة لإزالة إسرائيل). In the Resistance, we have, furthermore, a special unit for Palestine. We do not do the work for the Palestinians, and will never do that. But from a political, moral and religious standpoint, we are required to provide full support for the Palestinian armed groups in West bank and Gaz, not only to help them stay where they are now, but to resist the occupation and gradually push it out of the occupied territories." (al-Akhbar, 17 February 2012)</ref> In later years, and especially after the Oslo accords, Mughniyeh and Hezbollah sided with the more militant Palestinian factions such as [[Hamas]] and the [[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine|Islamic Jihad]].<ref name="Akhbar" />

Mughniyeh worked as the chief security for Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Shiia cleric and a spiritual mentor to many in Lebanon's Shi'a community, whose political consciousness was on the rise. Fadlallah held no formal political role, "opposed violence and sectarian division, and defied growing Iranian influence in Lebanon{{clarify|date=April 2020}}."