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}}{{#if:|{{#ifeq:{{#ifeq:|no|yes}}|yes||}} }}{{#if:|{{#ifeq:{{#ifeq:|no|yes}}|yes||}} }}{{#if:|{{#if:||{{#ifeq:{{#ifeq:|no|yes}}|yes||}}}} }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| regexp1 = 1blankname[%d]* | regexp2 = 1namedata[%d]* | regexp3 = 2blankname[%d]* | regexp4 = 2namedata[%d]* | regexp5 = 3blankname[%d]* | regexp6 = 3namedata[%d]* | regexp7 = 4blankname[%d]* | regexp8 = 4namedata[%d]* | regexp9 = 5blankname[%d]* | regexp10 = 5namedata[%d]* | allegiance | alma_mater | regexp11 = alongside[%d]* | alt | regexp12 = ambassador_from[%d]* | regexp13 = appointed[%d]* | regexp14 = appointer[%d]* | regexp15 = assembly[%d]* | awards | battles | battles_label | birth_date | birth_name | birth_place | birthname | regexp16 = blank[%d]* | bodyclass | branch | branch_label | cabinet | candidate | caption | categories | regexp17 = chancellor[%d]* | children | citizenship | regexp18 = co%-leader[%d]* | commands | committees | regexp19 = constituency[%d]* | regexp20 = constituency_AM[%d]* | regexp21 = constituency_MP[%d]* | regexp22 = convocation[%d]* | regexp23 = country[%d]* | regexp24 = data[%d]* | date | death_cause | death_date | death_manner | death_place | demo | regexp25 = deputy[%d]* | regexp26 = district[%d]* | education | election_date | embed | father | regexp28 = firstminister[%d]* | footnotes | regexp29 = governor[%d]* | regexp30 = governor_general[%d]* | regexp31 = governor%-general[%d]* | height | honorific_prefix | honorific-prefix | honorific_suffix | honorific-suffix | image | image name | image_name_alt | image_size | imagesize | image_upright | incumbent | regexp32 = jr/sr[%d]* | regexp33 = jr/sr and state[%d]* | known_for | regexp34 = leader[%d]* | regexp35 = legislature[%d]* | regexp36 = lieutenant[%d]* | regexp37 = lieutenant_governor[%d]* | mainwidth | regexp38 = majority[%d]* | regexp39 = majority_floor_leader[%d]* | regexp40 = majority_leader[%d]* | regexp41 = majorityleader[%d]* | mawards | regexp42 = military_blank[%d]* | regexp43 = military_data[%d]* | regexp44 = minister[%d]* | regexp45 = minister_from[%d]* | regexp46 = minority_floor_leader[%d]* | regexp47 = minority_leader[%d]* | regexp48 = minorityleader[%d]* | regexp49 = module[%d]* | regexp50 = monarch[%d]* | mother | name | nationality | native_name | native_name_lang | nickname | nocat | regexp51 = nominator[%d]* | nominee | occupation | regexp52 = office[%d]* | opponent | regexp53 = order[%d]* | otherparty | parents | regexp54 = parliament[%d]* | regexp55 = parliamentarygroup[%d]* | partner | party | party_election | portfolio | regexp56 = preceded[%d]* | regexp57 = preceding[%d]* | regexp58 = predecessor[%d]* | regexp59 = premier[%d]* | regexp60 = president[%d]* | regexp61 = primeminister[%d]* | regexp62 = prior_term[%d]* | profession | pronunciation | rank | rank_label | relations | relatives | residence | resting_place | resting_place_coordinates | restingplace | restingplacecoordinates | regexp63 = riding[%d]* | runningmate | salary | serviceyears | serviceyears_label | signature | signature_alt | signature_size | smallimage | smallimage_alt | source | speaker | speaker_office | spouse | spouses | regexp64 = state[%d]* | regexp65 = state_assembly[%d]* | regexp66 = state_delegate[%d]* | regexp67 = state_house[%d]* | regexp68 = state_legislature[%d]* | regexp69 = state_senate[%d]* | regexp70 = status[%d]* | regexp71 = suboffice[%d]* | regexp72 = subterm[%d]* | regexp73 = succeeded[%d]* | regexp74 = succeeding[%d]* | regexp75 = successor[%d]* | regexp76 = taoiseach[%d]* | regexp77 = term[%d]* | regexp78 = term_end[%d]* | regexp79 = term_label[%d]* | regexp80 = term_start[%d]* | regexp81 = termend[%d]* | regexp82 = termlabel[%d]* | regexp83 = termstart[%d]* | regexp84 = title[%d]* | unit | unit_label | regexp85 = vicegovernor[%d]* | regexp86 = vicepremier[%d]* | regexp87 = vicepresident[%d]* | regexp88 = viceprimeminister[%d]* | regexp89 = assuming[%d]* | website | width | year }} Template:Hezbollah Imad Fayez Mughniyeh (Template:LangxTemplate:Lrm; 7 December 1962 – 12 February 2008),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> also known by his nom de guerre al-Hajj Radwan ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), was a 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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Citation</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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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 Freezing funds: list of terrorists and terrorist groups Template:Webarchive Accessed 17 August 2006</ref><ref>Council Common Position 2005/427/CFSP of 6 June 2005 Official Journal L 144, 08/06/2005 P. 0054 – 0058 Template:Webarchive Accessed 17 August 2006</ref><ref name="eur-lex.europa.eu">COUNCIL COMMON POSITION 2005/847/CFSP of 29 November 2005 Official Journal of the European Union Template:Webarchive Accessed 17 August 2006</ref> and had a US$5 million bounty on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.<ref name=beirutcnn>Template:Cite news</ref> To many in his home country, Lebanon and the Middle East, he is a national symbol and hero.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
As part of a joint CIA–Mossad operation,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</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">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Telegraph2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="jpost.com2">[1] Template:Webarchive, "Will Hezbullah avenge the hit on its terror chief?" by Yaakov Katz, 11 February 2011</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Mughniyeh was born in the village of Tayr Dibba, near Tyre, on 7 December 1962 to a peasant family of Lebanon's southern Shi'a heartland.<ref name=Peraino/><ref name=glass16feb>Template:Cite news</ref> His father's name was Fayez.<ref name=The_driver>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Cite journal</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">Template:Cite book 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>Template:Cite news</ref>
Mughniyeh and his cousin Mustafa Badreddine joined Fatah at an early age.<ref name=meiramit>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Cite news</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>Template:Cite news</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, 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.<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 LebanonTemplate:Clarify."
Personal lifeEdit
In 1983, Mughniyeh married his cousin, Saada Badr Al Din, who is the sister of Mustafa Badreddine.<ref name=nspecial>Template:Cite news</ref> Mughniyeh had three children according to his mother: Fatima (born August 1984), Mustafa (born January 1987), and Jihad (estimated to have been age 25 at death).<ref name=nspecial/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In September 1991, Mugniyeh's wife and children were sent to Tehran for security reasons.<ref name=nspecial/> Later his family began to live in south Lebanon.<ref name=rotella>Template:Cite news</ref> Mughniyeh also married an Iranian woman, Wafaa Mughniyeh, with whom he lived in Damascus.<ref name=rotella/><ref name=iti23dec>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 21 December 1994 a car bomb in Chyah, Beirut, killed Mughniyeh's brother, Fuad. Two other people were killed in the explosion and sixteen wounded.<ref>Middle East International No 491, 6 January 1995; Publishers Lord Mayhew, Dennis Walters MP; Gerald Butt p.14</ref>
Mughniyeh's younger son, Jihad, was killed in the January 2015 Mazraat Amal incident in the Syrian Golan sector on 18 January 2015. Five other Hezbollah members and an Iranian Quds Force general were also killed in the attack.<ref name=Samaha20150119>Template:Cite news</ref>
PersonalityEdit
According to former CIA agent Robert Baer, "Mughniyah 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 loyal to him that he can fully trust. He doesn't just recruit people."<ref name="kohn" /> He was described as "tall, slender, well-dressed and handsome ... penetrating eyes," speaking some English but better French.<ref>According to hostage David Jacobsen. Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage, Simon and Schuster, (2001), p. 274</ref>
"Both bin Laden and Mughniyeh were pathological killers," 30-year veteran CIA officer Milton Bearden said. "But there was always a nagging amateurishness about bin Laden—his wildly hyped background, his bogus and false claims. … Bin Laden cowered and hid. Mughniyeh spent his life giving us the finger."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Nasrallah also stated that, "Hajj Imad is among the best leaders and commanders in the Lebanese arena. He had an important role during the occupation [of southern Lebanon by Israel] by 2000. But as for his relationship with Hezbollah, we maintain the tradition of not discussing names."<ref name="Blanford">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
After his death, Mugniyeh acquired a storied and folkloric persona. To many in his home country, Lebanon, and in the Middle East, he symbolizes resistance to foreign military occupation, a hero and a mastermind who single-handedly drove out the American and Israeli armies. The man behind the stabbing of Salman Rushdie, had a fake driver's license with the name Hassan Mughniyah, which suggests a mix between the forename and surname of Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mughniyeh, respectively.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
According to his family, he was a dedicated father and had a reputation for modesty, respect and humility, to the extent that his neighbors in Syria thought he was a driver for the Iranian embassy.<ref name=":1" />
AllegationsEdit
U.S. and Israeli officials have implicated Mughniyeh of many terrorist attacks, primarily against American and Israeli targets. These include 18 April 1983 bombing of the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 63 people including 17 Americans whom among them were 7 CIA officers which included Robert Ames, the head of the Near East Division.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Mughniyeh was also accused of planning and organising the 23 October 1983 truck bombings against French paratroopers and the U.S. Marine barracks, attacks which killed 60 French soldiers and 240 Marines.<ref name="CSM">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=cnn10101>Template:Cite news</ref> While a student at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on 18 January 1984, Mughniyeh allegedly assassinated Malcolm H. Kerr (father of former NBA player/current coach Steve Kerr), the school's president. On 20 September 1984, he is alleged to have attacked the US embassy annex building.
The United States indicted Mughniyeh (and his collaborator, Hassan Izz al-Din) for the 14 June 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, in which he tortured and murdered the U.S. Navy Seabee diver Robert Stethem.<ref name="Norton">Template:Cite book p. 77</ref> Mughniyeh and his men allegedly tortured Stethem for hours, before killing him and dumping his body onto the airport tarmac.<ref name=kohn>Template:Cite news</ref>
U.S. and Israeli officials have also alleged that Mughniyeh was involved in numerous kidnappings of Americans in Beirut during the 1980s, most notably the kidnapping of Terry Anderson, Terry Waite, and William Francis Buckley, who was the CIA station chief in Beirut. Some of these individuals were killed by Mughniyeh directly, such as Buckley, who was subjected to extreme psychological and medical torture under the supervision of the psychiatrist Aziz al-Abub.<ref>Martin, David C. and Walcott, John, "Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism," Harper & Row, (1988), pp. 154–55, 233</ref> The remainder were released at various times, with the last one, Terry Anderson, released in 1991.<ref name=jgoldberg/> On 30 September 1985, Mughniyeh allegedly organised the kidnapping of four diplomats from the Soviet Embassy in Beirut, one of whom he personally killed. The result of the kidnapping was Soviet pressure on Syria to stop its operations in Northern Lebanon in exchange for the release of the remaining three hostages.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Mughniyeh was formally charged by Argentina for his alleged involvement on 17 March 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29, and of the AMIA cultural building in July 1994, killing 85 people.<ref>Norton, Augustus Richard, Hezbollah: A Short History, Princeton University Press, 2007, p. 79</ref> In March 2007, the Interpol issued "red notices" for his and others' alleged roles in the attack.<ref name=sap16nov>Template:Cite news</ref>
In addition, Mughniyeh allegedly planned the killing of Micha Tamir, the IDF general in Lebanon, and two IDF soldiers on 6 April 1992.<ref name=ykatz142>Template:Cite news</ref>
U.S. and Israeli officials have also alleged that Mugniyeh was the mastermind of the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 American air force personnel and a Saudi civilian.<ref name=jgoldberg/>
Israeli officials accuse Mughniyeh of orchestrating the October 2000 capture of three IDF soldiers in northern Israel, and of the kidnapping of IDF colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum. They also accuse Mughniyeh of overseeing the 2006 cross border raid that killed eight soldiers and abducted two during Israel's 2006 incursion into Lebanon.<ref name=ykatz142/>
Organizational affiliationEdit
In 2002, Mughniyeh was linked to the Karine A incident in which the Palestinian Authority was accused of importing fifty tons of weapons. He was a member of Force 17, an armed branch of the Fatah movement charged with providing security for Yasser Arafat and other prominent PLO officials.<ref name=darling>Template:Cite news</ref>
In mid-February 1997, the pro-Israeli South Lebanese Army radio station reported that Iran's intelligence service had dispatched Mughniyeh to Lebanon to directly supervise the reorganisation of Hezbollah's security and military apparatus concerned with Palestinian affairs in Lebanon and to work as a security liaison between Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence. Mughniyeh also reportedly controlled Hezbollah's security apparatus, the Special Operations Command, which handles intelligence and conducts overseas terrorist acts. Allegedly, although he used Hezbollah as a cover, he reported to the Iranians.<ref>Rex A. Hudson, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, September 1999 The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who becomes a terrorist and why? Template:Webarchive Accessed 17 August 2006</ref> According to Jeffery Goldberg, writing in the New Yorker, "It is believed that Mugniyeh takes orders from the office of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, but that he reports to a man named Qasem Soleimani, the chief of a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called Al Quds, or the Jerusalem Force—the arm of the Iranian government responsible for sponsoring terror attacks on Israeli targets."<ref name=jgoldberg>Template:Cite news</ref> In January 2002, a US cable also stated that Mughniyeh left Hezbollah and got closer to Iran.<ref name=intelwire11>Template:Cite news</ref> However, Mughniyeh was a member of Hezbollah's jihadist council until his death in February 2008.<ref name=alm20mar>Template:Cite news</ref> After the July 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, he was assigned by Hezbollah to improve the military capabilities of the resistance in Lebanon; Damascus was his centre for this activity.<ref name=alak19feb>Template:Cite news</ref>
The European Union listed him as "Hezbollah's Chief of Staff".<ref name="eur-lex.europa.eu" />
Arrest warrants and attempted assassinationEdit
Various law and intelligence enforcement agencies attempted to capture Mughniyeh. The United States tried to secure his capture in France in 1986, but were thwarted by French officials' refusal to arrest him.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The United States tried to capture him several times afterward, beginning with a 1995 US special forces Delta Force operation that was put in place after the CIA was tipped off that Mughniyeh was flying a Middle East Airlines charter flight Airbus A310 from Khartoum to Beirut after a meeting with several Hezbollah leaders, and was scheduled to make a stop-over in Saudi Arabia. But Saudi security officers refused to allow the plane to make its stop-over, thwarting American attempts to arrest Mughniyeh.<ref name="katz">Katz, Samuel M. "Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the manhunt for the al-Qaeda terrorists", 2002</ref><ref name=jeff1july>Template:Cite news</ref>
The following year, the U.S. Navy planned to seize him from a Pakistani ship in Doha, Qatar, but the operation was called off. The plan, dubbed Operation RETURN OX, was carried out by ships and sailors of Amphibious Squadron Three (USS Tarawa, USS Duluth, USS Rushmore), Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and Navy SEALs assigned to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. The operation was underway, but was cancelled at the last minute when it could not be fully verified that Mughniyeh was on board the Pakistani ship.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On 10 October 2001, Mughniyeh appeared on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by President Bush, with a reward of up to $15 million offered for information leading to his arrest.<ref>BBC News, 10 October 2001 America's 'most wanted terrorists' Template:Webarchive Retrieved 17 August 2006</ref> The reward was later increased to $25 million.<ref name=ash13feb>Template:Cite news</ref> This reward remained outstanding as of 2006.<ref name="FBI">Federal Bureau of Investigation www.globalsecurity.org Template:Webarchive Accessed 17 August 2006</ref><ref>Rewards for Justice Imad Fayez Mugniyah Template:Webarchive Retrieved 17 August 2006</ref> Mughniyeh was on 42 countries' wanted lists.<ref name=ash13feb/>
The Israeli intelligence service Mossad made numerous attempts to assassinate Mughniyeh. His brother Fuad, a car shop owner, was killed in a 1994 Beirut car bombing, and another brother, Jihad, was killed in a car-bombing assassination attempt on the life of Hezbollah founder Sheikh Fadlallah in 1985, the work of the CIA via the South Lebanese Army. Israel planned to assassinate Mughniyeh when he attended the funeral of his brother Fuad, but he failed to show up.<ref name=mel13feb>Template:Cite news</ref>
Jeffrey Goldberg suggested that Mughniyeh, representing Hezbollah in Lebanon, attended a high-level meeting between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.<ref name=jgoldberg/>
AssassinationEdit
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Imad Mughniyeh was killed on 12 February 2008 by a car bomb blast at around 23:00 in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of Damascus, Syria.<ref name="reuters2"/><ref name="Telegraph2"/> According to The Sunday Times, Mughniyeh was at a reception marking the 29th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution hosted by the Iranian ambassador to Syria, Ahmad Musavi.<ref name="SundayTimes">Template:Cite news</ref> Mughniyeh left the party shortly after 22:30 and walked to his Mitsubishi Pajero.<ref name=spiegel>Template:Cite news</ref> The spare tyre had been replaced by one with a high explosive, which was detonated as Mughniyeh walked past.<ref name=WP013015>Template:Cite news</ref> The blast completely destroyed the car, left minimum damage on nearby buildings and killed only Mughniyeh.<ref name=spiegel/> A Syrian government investigation found that he was killed by a car bomb that was parked nearby and that was detonated remotely.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Israel officially denied being behind the killing,<ref name="Telegraph2"/> but Mughniyeh reportedly had been a target of Mossad assassination attempts since the 1990s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 27 February 2008, The Jerusalem Post reported that Al-Quds Al-Arabi had written that anonymous "Syrian sources" had claimed that "several Arab nations conspired with Mossad" in the assassination of Mughniyeh.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has suggested that it was also possible that Syrian intelligence was responsible for the killing.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ba'athist dissident and former Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam stated in 2008 that Syrian intelligence orchestrated the killing of Mughniyeh under orders from the Assad regime.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Khaddam, Assad's removal of Assef Shawkat as Syria's intelligence chief was due to Shawkat's investigation claiming that an explosion "had taken place inside the car" which went against official line toed by Assad, which was that the death was caused due to "the explosion of a gas tank". Without naming a source, the German newspaper Die Welt wrote that a story had been circulated amongst German diplomatic staff that it was possible that associates of late Assef Shawkat had assassinated Mughniyeh.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This would have been in revenge for Mughniyeh tipping off Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regarding a coup plotted against him, which the Syrian government had foiled a couple of days before his assassination. Releasing the story in advance of going to print, Die Welt said the Syrian embassy in Berlin had rejected the coup story as utterly untrue. Lebanese politicians Walid Jumblatt and Saad Hariri as well as Mughniyeh's Iranian widow also accused Syrian officials.<ref name="eid" /> His widow, after returning to Iran from Damascus, stated "This is why the Syrian regime has refused the help of Iran and Hizbollah in the investigation of the murder... The Syrian traitors assisted in my husband’s murder."<ref name="eid" /> However, later she denied her statements.<ref name="eid" /> According to a leaked US official report, top Syrian officials were stunned by the assassination of Mughniyeh and engaged in an internecine struggle to blame each other for the breach of security that resulted in Mughniyeh's death.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported that Hezbollah intelligence sources said they would retaliate for Mughniyeh's death by assassinating Israeli leaders.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Newsweek reported that in 2007 Mossad's director general, Meir Dagan, tipped the CIA off about the location of Mughniyeh in Kafr Sousa, Damascus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The two Mossad agents had the roles of monitoring his movements and confirming Mughniyeh's identity using advanced facial recognition technology, while the CIA officer later detonated the bomb.<ref name=WP013015/><ref name=newsweek>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReactionsEdit
Mughniyeh's body was taken to Beirut and buried in Rawdat al-Shahidain Cemetery. A funeral was organized by Hezbollah on 14 February.<ref name="zis17feb">Template:Cite journal</ref> Senior Iranian officials attended the service; Ali Akbar Velayati representing the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki representing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<ref name="akh12">Template:Cite news</ref> At the funeral, Hassan Nasrallah appeared via video link and in the eulogy delivered for his fallen comrade, declared: "You crossed the borders. Zionists, if you want an open war, let it be an open war anywhere."<ref name=Peraino/><ref name=ADL>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lebanese senior cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said that "the resistance has lost one of its pillars."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Iran condemned the killing as "yet another brazen example of organised state terrorism by the Zionist regime" (Israel).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A symbolic tomb was erected for Mughniyeh in the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery of Tehran.<ref name="akh12" /> Later the Iranian government named a street in Tehran after Imad Mughniyeh as well.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The assassination of Mughniyeh was condemned in some parts of the world. Then Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema termed the assassination "terror" in an interview,<ref name=meron>Template:Cite news</ref> while Gideon Levy of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz claimed the assassination actually undermined Israel's security.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Bush administration welcomed news of Mugniyeh's death. A spokesman of the U.S. State Department said: "The world is a better place without this man in it. He was a coldblooded killer, a mass murderer and a terrorist responsible for countless innocent lives lost. One way or another he was brought to justice."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Danny Yatom, former head of the Israeli Mossad said: "He was one of the most dangerous terrorists ever on Earth."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
After Mughniyeh's killing, Hezbollah's elite Intervention Unit was renamed the Redwan Force after his operational alias Hajj Radwan (الحاج رضوان) in April 2008.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Ynetnews9Jun23">Template:Cite news</ref>
On the 10th anniversary of Mugniyeh's killing, Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, described Mugniyeh as "the legend of our time," grief caused by whose loss was only second to that of Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Soleimani said that what made Mugniyeh unique was not his expertise in guerrilla warfare but "his attachment to something superterrestrial."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Soleimani stressed that "the enemy must recognize that avenging Mughniyah's death won't be fulfilled by launching a missile or killing someone in response, but bloods like these will be only avenged by full destruction of the Zionist regime" which he said was "a definite Divine promise."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> (Less than two years later, Soleimani himself was assassinated in a targeted U.S. drone strike in January 2020 in Baghdad.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>)