Imad Mugniyah
Encyclopedia
Imad Fayez Mughniyah also transliterated Mughniyya, Mughniyeh, Mogniyah, , alias
Hajj
Radwan (الحاج رضوان), was a senior member of Lebanon
's Hezbollah organisation. He was alternatively described as the head of its security section, a senior intelligence official and as a founder of the organisation. Mugniyah has been associated with the Beirut barracks bombing
and US embassy bombings
, both of which took place in 1983 and killed over 350, as well as the kidnapping of dozens of foreigners in Lebanon in the 1980s. He was indicted in Argentina
for his alleged role in the 1992 Israeli embassy attack in Buenos Aires
. The highest-profile attacks for which it is claimed he is responsible took place in the early 1980s, shortly after the founding of Hezbollah. He is thought to have killed more US citizens than any other militant before the 2001 US attacks, and the bombings and kidnappings he is alleged to have organized are credited with all but eliminating the US military presence in Lebanon in the 1980s.
Information about him is limited. He is reported by the US FBI to have used the alias of Hajj, and to have been called Abu Dokhan, Arabic for "smoke-bearer" or "father of smoke"—according to US fiction writer Richard Couch because of his skill at disappearing when being pursued. Mughniyah was included in the European Union's list of wanted terrorists. and had a US$5 million bounty on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
list.
Imad Mughniyah was killed on February 12, 2008 by a car bomb
, planted inside the driver's headrest
, around 11:00 pm local time in the Kfar Suseh neighborhood of Damascus
, Syria
. As Mughniyah passed the car on foot, the bomb was detonated. Mughniyeh’s body parts were later found scattered across the street.
s and lemon
s in the orchards of Lebanon's southern Shi'a heartland. CIA South Group records state that Mughniyah lived in Ayn Al-Dilbah, a slum in South Beirut
.
Mughniyeh is described as having been 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."
Mughniyah became active in the Palestinian Fatah movement at an early age. He was discovered by fellow Lebanese Ali Abu Hassan Deeb (who would later become a leader in Hizbullah) and quickly rose through the ranks of the movement. In the mid-1970s, Mugniyah organized the "Student Brigade," a unit of 100 young men which became part of Yasser Arafat
's elite Force 17
.
Mughniyah temporarily left Fatah in 1981 due to differences of opinion on the regime of Saddam Hussein. Mughniyah was a Shiite and deeply religious and was upset by the murder of the Iraqi Grand Ayatullah Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr in 1980 as well as a previous attempt by the Iraqi intelligence on the life of Lebanese Ayatullah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah.
Fatah was formally in alliance the Lebanese National Movement
, which included the pro-Iraqi branch of the Ba’th party. Mughniyah and some of his Lebanese Shiite comrades were forced to leave Fatah after engaging in armed confrontations with Ba’th party activists. They had previously organized a body guard unit for Ayatullah Fadlallah and other Shiite clerics in Lebanon. Mughniyah accompanied Ayatullah Fadlallah on a Hajj
pilgrimage in 1980 and thus earned his Hajj title.
When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 Mughniyah was in Iran but hurried back to Beirut where he rejoined Fatah and participated in the defence of West Beirut and was wounded in the fighting. After the withdrawal of PLO forces from Beirut in September 1982 Mughniyah acquired an important position in the nascent resistance to the Israeli occupation due to his knowledge of arms cashes left behind by the Palestinians. He remained a Fatah member during this period but also worked with other factions, such as the leftist Lebanese National Movement and Islamic Resistance groups. Mughniyah remained a member of Fatah until 1984 when he joined the Islamic Resistance of the Hezbullah. He remained however close to Fatah leader Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) until the latter’s death in 1988. He also remained deeply committed to the Palestine cause throughout his life and apparently founded a secret “Committee for Elimination of Israel (Lajnah li-Izalat Isra’il) inside the Hizbullah in 2000. In later years, and especially after the Oslo accords, Mughniyah and the Hizbullah sided with the more militant Palestinian factions such as Hamas
and the Islamic Jihad
.
Mughniyeh was a student in the engineering department at the American University of Beirut
in 1981 when the United States of America gave the "green light" for Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon in pursuit of the Palestine Liberation Organization
.
Mughniyeh had been working as the bodyguard for Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, 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." On September 30, 1985, Mughniyeh organized the kidnapping of four diplomats from the Soviet Embassy in Beirut, one of whom he soon personally killed. The result of this kidnapping was Soviet pressure on Syria to stop its operations in Northern Lebanon in exchange for release of the remaining three hostages. On March 8, 1985, the CIA carried out a reprisal operation
funded by the Saudis
, for the Marine barracks bombing of 1983, in which they attempted to kill Fadlallah by car-bombing. The cleric escaped harm, but the huge explosion wounded 200 and killed 62 in the poor Shi'a neighbourhood where he lived. Among the dead were Imad Mughniya's brother and some of Fadlallah's bodyguards and close friends. Roger Morris
claims that this was a "turning point" in Mughniyeh's life and that it was after this event that he "joined the terrorist arm of the increasingly militant political impulse among Lebanon's Shi'ah from which Hezbollah soon emerged, and as the resistance movement's chief of security and intelligence, he joined one of history's more vicious chain reactions."
attacks in the 1980s and 1990s, primarily against American
and Israel
i targets. These allegations include the April 18, 1983 bombing of the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 63 people including 17 Americans. Agreement is not universal on Mughniyah's involvement as Caspar Weinberger
, the Secretary of Defense at the time, told PBS
in 2001, "We still do not have the actual knowledge of who did the bombing of the Marine barracks at the Beirut Airport, and we certainly didn't then."
Mughniyeh was fingered as the mastermind of the October 23, 1983 simultaneous truck bombings against French paratroopers and the U.S. Marine barracks
, attacks which killed 58 French soldiers and 241 Marines. On September 20, 1984, he is alleged to have attacked the US embassy annex building. The United States indicted him (and his collaborator, Hassan Izz al-Din) for the June 14, 1985 hijacking
of TWA Flight 847
, which resulted in the death of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem
. He was also linked to numerous kidnappings of Westerners
in Beirut through the 1980s, most notably that of Terry Anderson, Terry Waite
, and William Francis Buckley
, who was the CIA station chief in Beirut. Some of these individuals were later killed, such as Buckley, who was hideously tortured and eventually murdered. The remainder were released at various times with the last one, Terry Anderson, released in 1991. It is also believed that he took advantage of his status as a student in the American University of Beirut to enable him to assassinate Malcolm Kerr, president of the AUB, on campus in 1984. His stay at AUB as an engineering student was financed by a political organisation. Mugniyah has also been tied to the Khobar Towers bombing
in 1996, which killed 19 Americans and one Saudi citizen.
Mughniyah has been formally charged by Argentina
with participating in the March 17, 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy
in Buenos Aires
, which killed 29 and the AMIA cultural building
in July 1994, killing 86 people. He has also been accused of orchestrating the 2000 capture of three Israeli soldiers in the northern part of Israel and the kidnapping of Israeli businessman Elchanan Tenenbaum, and of killing eight soldiers and abducting two in the 2006 Israel/Lebanon conflict.
While the long international hunt for Mughniyah produced many allegations, they were denied or dismissed by Hezbollah. In a July 2003 interview Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah
told Time Magazine that the U.S. accusations against Mughniyah were "just accusations," and he questioned whether they could provide evidence to condemn Mughniyah. Nasrallah also stated that, "Hajj Imad is among the best freedom fighters
in the Lebanese arena. He had a very important role during the occupation [of southern Lebanon by Israel]. But as for his relationship with Hezbollah, we maintain the tradition of not discussing names."
According to 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 related to him that he can trust. He doesn’t just recruit people."
He has been described as "tall, slender, well-dressed and handsome ... penetrating eyes," speaking some English but better French.
operations such as the Karine A incident in 2002, where 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.
In mid-February 1997, the pro-Israeli South Lebanese Army radio station reported that Iran's intelligence service had dispatched Mughniyah to Lebanon to directly supervise the reorganisation of Hezbollah's security apparatus concerned with Palestinian affairs in Lebanon and to work as a security liaison between Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence. Mughniyah 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. According to Jeffery Goldberg, writing in the New Yorker, "It is believed that Mugniyah takes orders from the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, but that he reports to a man named Ghassem Soleimani, the chief of a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps called Al Quds, or the Jerusalem Force—the arm of the Iranian government responsible for sponsoring terror attacks on Israeli targets."
The European Union lists him as "Senior Intelligence Officer of Hezbollah".
in 1986, but were thwarted by French refusal to detain him.
The United States tried to capture him several times afterwards, beginning with a 1995 operation that was put in place after it was realized Mughniyah was flying a Middle East Airlines
charter flight A-310 Airbus from Khartoum
to Beirut
after a meeting with several militant leaders, and was scheduled to make a stop-over in Saudi Arabia. But Saudi airport officials refused to allow the plane to make its stop-over, thwarting American bids to arrest Mughniyah.
The next year, U.S. military personnel planned to seize him off a ship in Doha, Qatar, but the operation was called off. This 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 canceled at the last minute when it could not be verified that Mughniyah was actually on board the Pakistani ship.
On October 10, 2001, Mughniyah 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 $5 million offered for information leading to his arrest. This reward remained outstanding as of 2006.
The Israeli government made several alleged attempts to assassinate Mughniyah. His brother Fuad Mugniyah was killed in a 1994 Beirut car bombing. (Another brother, Jihad, was killed in a car-bombing assassination attempt on the life of Hezbollah founder Sheikh Fadlallah in 1985, this one rumored to be the work of the CIA via the South Lebanese Army.)
The New Yorker
magazine suggested that Mugniyah attended a meeting between Iran
ian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syria
n
President Bashar al-Assad
. He was there representing Hezbollah in Lebanon
. Mugniyah had been informed that he was at the top of a US military and CIA assassination list. For this reason, he was said to avoid certain areas of Beirut
for fear of being killed by CIA operators.
Imad Mughniyah was killed on February 12, 2008 by a car bomb blast around 11:00 pm local time in the Kfar Suseh neighborhood of Damascus
, Syria
. He had been the target of Israeli Mossad
assassination attempts since the 1990s. Furthermore, The Times states that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
met privately with Mossad director Meir Dagan on the day of Mughniyeh's burial, reportedly to congratulate him. On February 27 Al-Quds Al-Arabi
reported that several Arab states helped the Mossad carry out the bombing. Accounts cited by the Jerusalem Post state that Mughniyeh was assassinated in revenge for the 2006 Lebanon War, which he had a role in instigating. Mossad tasked the Kidon unit, a school of assassins which operates under the Caesarea Branch, with the mission. An account stated that operatives entered Damascus. The team waited for Mughniyeh. When Mughniyeh walked past a car which had been loaded with explosives, the entire street shook. Mughniyeh’s body parts were later found scattered across the street. His assassination took Hizbullah completely by surprise, particularly Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the organization’s leader, who still delivers speeches from a bunker, But Israel officially denied being behind the killing. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell suggested that it is also possible that internal Hezbollah factions or Syria may be to blame for the killing.
Without naming a source, the German newspaper Die Welt
said a story had been circulated amongst German diplomatic staff that it was possible that associates of Assef Shawkat had assassinated Mughniyah in revenge for having tipped the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
, about coup plot against him, which the Syrian government had foiled a couple of days before Mugniyah's 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.
At Mugniyah's funeral, Hassan Nasrallah appeared via video link and in the lengthy eulogy he delivered for his fallen comrade, he declared: "You crossed the borders. Zionists
, if you want an open war, let it be an open war anywhere."
Lebanese senior cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said that "the resistance has lost one of its pillars."
Iran
condemned the killing as: "yet another brazen example of organised state terrorism by the Zionist regime".
According to The Sunday Times
, Mughniyah was at a reception marking the 29th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution hosted by Iranian ambassador to Syria, Hojatoleslam Ahmad Musavi. Mughniyah left at 10:35 pm and went to his silver Mitsubishi Pajero
nearby. The driver seat headrest had been replaced by one with a high-explosive, which detonated when Mughniyah entered the vehicle.
The Syrian investigation found that he was killed by a car bomb parked nearby and detonated by remote.
The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported that Hezbollah sources said they would retaliate for Mughniyah's death by assassinating Israeli leaders.
The Bush administration welcomed news of his 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."
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
Radwan (الحاج رضوان), was a senior member of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
's Hezbollah organisation. He was alternatively described as the head of its security section, a senior intelligence official and as a founder of the organisation. Mugniyah has been associated with the Beirut barracks bombing
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
The Beirut Barracks Bombing occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen...
and US embassy bombings
1983 United States Embassy bombing
The 1983 U.S. embassy bombing was a suicide bombing against the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon on April 18, 1983 that killed over 60 people, mostly embassy staff members and United States Marines and sailors. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission up to that time, and is...
, both of which took place in 1983 and killed over 350, as well as the kidnapping of dozens of foreigners in Lebanon in the 1980s. He was indicted in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
for his alleged role in the 1992 Israeli embassy attack in Buenos Aires
Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires
The attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was a bomb attack on building of the Israeli embassy of Argentina located in Buenos Aires which was carried out on March 17, 1992. 29 civilians were killed in the attack and 242 additional civilians were injured.- The attack :On March 17, 1992...
. The highest-profile attacks for which it is claimed he is responsible took place in the early 1980s, shortly after the founding of Hezbollah. He is thought to have killed more US citizens than any other militant before the 2001 US attacks, and the bombings and kidnappings he is alleged to have organized are credited with all but eliminating the US military presence in Lebanon in the 1980s.
Information about him is limited. He is reported by the US FBI to have used the alias of Hajj, and to have been called Abu Dokhan, Arabic for "smoke-bearer" or "father of smoke"—according to US fiction writer Richard Couch because of his skill at disappearing when being pursued. Mughniyah was included in the European Union's list of wanted terrorists. and had a US$5 million bounty on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Terrorists is a list of fugitives who have been indicted by sitting Federal grand juries in the United States district courts, for alleged crimes of terrorism. The initial list was formed in late 2001 in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks...
list.
Imad Mughniyah was killed on February 12, 2008 by a car bomb
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
, planted inside the driver's headrest
Headrest
In an automobile, head restraints are attached or integrated into the top of the seats in each seating position to limit the rearward movement of an adult occupant's head relative to his torso in a crash, so as to reduce the danger of whiplash or other injury to the cervical vertebrae...
, around 11:00 pm local time in the Kfar Suseh neighborhood of Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
. As Mughniyah passed the car on foot, the bomb was detonated. Mughniyeh’s body parts were later found scattered across the street.
Biography
Mughniyah was born in Tayr Dibba to a family of poor farmers who harvested oliveOlive
The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...
s and lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
s in the orchards of Lebanon's southern Shi'a heartland. CIA South Group records state that Mughniyah lived in Ayn Al-Dilbah, a slum in South Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
.
Mughniyeh is described as having been 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."
Mughniyah became active in the Palestinian Fatah movement at an early age. He was discovered by fellow Lebanese Ali Abu Hassan Deeb (who would later become a leader in Hizbullah) and quickly rose through the ranks of the movement. In the mid-1970s, Mugniyah organized the "Student Brigade," a unit of 100 young men which became part of Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
's elite Force 17
Force 17
Force 17 was a commando and special operations terror unit of the Palestinian Fatah movement and later of the Office of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority. It was formed in the early 1970s by Ali Hassan Salameh ....
.
Mughniyah temporarily left Fatah in 1981 due to differences of opinion on the regime of Saddam Hussein. Mughniyah was a Shiite and deeply religious and was upset by the murder of the Iraqi Grand Ayatullah Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr in 1980 as well as a previous attempt by the Iraqi intelligence on the life of Lebanese Ayatullah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah.
Fatah was formally in alliance the Lebanese National Movement
Lebanese National Movement
The Lebanese National Movement or Mouvement National Libanais in French, was a front of parties and organizations active during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War...
, which included the pro-Iraqi branch of the Ba’th party. Mughniyah and some of his Lebanese Shiite comrades were forced to leave Fatah after engaging in armed confrontations with Ba’th party activists. They had previously organized a body guard unit for Ayatullah Fadlallah and other Shiite clerics in Lebanon. Mughniyah accompanied Ayatullah Fadlallah on a Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
pilgrimage in 1980 and thus earned his Hajj title.
When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 Mughniyah was in Iran but hurried back to Beirut where he rejoined Fatah and participated in the defence of West Beirut and was wounded in the fighting. After the withdrawal of PLO forces from Beirut in September 1982 Mughniyah acquired an important position in the nascent resistance to the Israeli occupation due to his knowledge of arms cashes left behind by the Palestinians. He remained a Fatah member during this period but also worked with other factions, such as the leftist Lebanese National Movement and Islamic Resistance groups. Mughniyah remained a member of Fatah until 1984 when he joined the Islamic Resistance of the Hezbullah. He remained however close to Fatah leader Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) until the latter’s death in 1988. He also remained deeply committed to the Palestine cause throughout his life and apparently founded a secret “Committee for Elimination of Israel (Lajnah li-Izalat Isra’il) inside the Hizbullah in 2000. In later years, and especially after the Oslo accords, Mughniyah and the Hizbullah sided with the more militant Palestinian factions such as Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
and the Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad may refer to:* Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine* Islamic Jihad Organization, active mostly in Lebanon* Islamic Jihad of Yemen* Turkish Islamic Jihad* Egyptian Islamic JihadSee also:* Islamic jihad, theological concept of jihad...
.
Mughniyeh was a student in the engineering department at the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
in 1981 when the United States of America gave the "green light" for Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon in pursuit of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
.
Mughniyeh had been working as the bodyguard for Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, 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." On September 30, 1985, Mughniyeh organized the kidnapping of four diplomats from the Soviet Embassy in Beirut, one of whom he soon personally killed. The result of this kidnapping was Soviet pressure on Syria to stop its operations in Northern Lebanon in exchange for release of the remaining three hostages. On March 8, 1985, the CIA carried out a reprisal operation
1985 Beirut Car Bombing
On 8 March 1985, a car bomb exploded between 9 and 45 metres from the house of Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon, in a failed assassination attempt organized by the American CIA and British intelligence...
funded by the Saudis
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, for the Marine barracks bombing of 1983, in which they attempted to kill Fadlallah by car-bombing. The cleric escaped harm, but the huge explosion wounded 200 and killed 62 in the poor Shi'a neighbourhood where he lived. Among the dead were Imad Mughniya's brother and some of Fadlallah's bodyguards and close friends. Roger Morris
Roger Morris
Roger Morris may refer to:*Roger Morris , 2000s novelist*Roger Morris *Roger Morris *Robert Morris , signer to the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution*Roger Morris , British architect*Roger Morris , historian and author of...
claims that this was a "turning point" in Mughniyeh's life and that it was after this event that he "joined the terrorist arm of the increasingly militant political impulse among Lebanon's Shi'ah from which Hezbollah soon emerged, and as the resistance movement's chief of security and intelligence, he joined one of history's more vicious chain reactions."
Allegations
Mughniyah was accused of terroristTerrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
attacks in the 1980s and 1990s, primarily against American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i targets. These allegations include the April 18, 1983 bombing of the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 63 people including 17 Americans. Agreement is not universal on Mughniyah's involvement as Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...
, the Secretary of Defense at the time, told PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
in 2001, "We still do not have the actual knowledge of who did the bombing of the Marine barracks at the Beirut Airport, and we certainly didn't then."
Mughniyeh was fingered as the mastermind of the October 23, 1983 simultaneous truck bombings against French paratroopers and the U.S. Marine barracks
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
The Beirut Barracks Bombing occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen...
, attacks which killed 58 French soldiers and 241 Marines. On September 20, 1984, he is alleged to have attacked the US embassy annex building. The United States indicted him (and his collaborator, Hassan Izz al-Din) for the June 14, 1985 hijacking
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
of TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847 was an international Trans World Airlines flight which was hijacked by Lebanese Shia extremists, later identified as members of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, on Friday morning, June 14, 1985, after originally taking off from Cairo. The flight was en route from Athens to Rome and then...
, which resulted in the death of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem
Robert Stethem
Robert Dean Stethem was a United States Navy Seabee diver who was killed by Hezbollah militants during the hijacking of the commercial airliner he was aboard: TWA Flight 847...
. He was also linked to numerous kidnappings of Westerners
Lebanon hostage crisis
The Lebanon hostage crisis refers to the systematic kidnapping in Lebanon of 96 foreign hostages of 21 national origins – mostly American and western European – between 1982 and 1992...
in Beirut through the 1980s, most notably that of Terry Anderson, Terry Waite
Terry Waite
Terry Waite CBE is an English humanitarian and author.Waite was Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie's Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages including journalist John...
, and William Francis Buckley
William Francis Buckley
William Francis Buckley was a United States Army officer and a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the Special Activities Division of the CIA. He died on or around June 3, 1985 while in the custody of Hezbollah...
, who was the CIA station chief in Beirut. Some of these individuals were later killed, such as Buckley, who was hideously tortured and eventually murdered. The remainder were released at various times with the last one, Terry Anderson, released in 1991. It is also believed that he took advantage of his status as a student in the American University of Beirut to enable him to assassinate Malcolm Kerr, president of the AUB, on campus in 1984. His stay at AUB as an engineering student was financed by a political organisation. Mugniyah has also been tied to the Khobar Towers bombing
Khobar Towers bombing
The Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company headquarters of Dhahran. In 1996, Khobar Towers was being used to house foreign military personnel.Al-Qaeda has incorrectly been described by...
in 1996, which killed 19 Americans and one Saudi citizen.
Mughniyah has been formally charged by Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
with participating in the March 17, 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy
Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires
The attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was a bomb attack on building of the Israeli embassy of Argentina located in Buenos Aires which was carried out on March 17, 1992. 29 civilians were killed in the attack and 242 additional civilians were injured.- The attack :On March 17, 1992...
in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, which killed 29 and the AMIA cultural building
AMIA Bombing
The AMIA bombing was an attack on the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina building in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, that killed 85 people and injured hundreds. It was Argentina's deadliest bombing...
in July 1994, killing 86 people. He has also been accused of orchestrating the 2000 capture of three Israeli soldiers in the northern part of Israel and the kidnapping of Israeli businessman Elchanan Tenenbaum, and of killing eight soldiers and abducting two in the 2006 Israel/Lebanon conflict.
While the long international hunt for Mughniyah produced many allegations, they were denied or dismissed by Hezbollah. In a July 2003 interview Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah
Hasan Nasrallah, became the third Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary organization Hezbollah after Israel assassinated the previous leader, Abbas al-Musawi, in 1992. Hezbollah in its entirety is considered a terrorist organization by The United States, the Netherlands,...
told Time Magazine that the U.S. accusations against Mughniyah were "just accusations," and he questioned whether they could provide evidence to condemn Mughniyah. Nasrallah also stated that, "Hajj Imad is among the best freedom fighters
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
in the Lebanese arena. He had a very important role during the occupation [of southern Lebanon by Israel]. But as for his relationship with Hezbollah, we maintain the tradition of not discussing names."
According to Robert Baer
Robert Baer
Robert "Bob" Booker Baer is an American author and a former CIA case officer assigned to the Middle East. He is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and has contributed to Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Baer is a frequent commentator and author about issues related to...
"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 related to him that he can trust. He doesn’t just recruit people."
He has been described as "tall, slender, well-dressed and handsome ... penetrating eyes," speaking some English but better French.
Organisational affiliation
Mugniyah has been allegedly linked to PalestinianPalestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
operations such as the Karine A incident in 2002, where the Palestinian Authority was accused of importing fifty tons of weapons. He was a member of Force 17
Force 17
Force 17 was a commando and special operations terror unit of the Palestinian Fatah movement and later of the Office of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority. It was formed in the early 1970s by Ali Hassan Salameh ....
, an armed branch of the Fatah
Fatah
Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...
movement charged with providing security for Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
and other prominent PLO officials.
In mid-February 1997, the pro-Israeli South Lebanese Army radio station reported that Iran's intelligence service had dispatched Mughniyah to Lebanon to directly supervise the reorganisation of Hezbollah's security apparatus concerned with Palestinian affairs in Lebanon and to work as a security liaison between Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence. Mughniyah 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. According to Jeffery Goldberg, writing in the New Yorker, "It is believed that Mugniyah takes orders from the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, but that he reports to a man named Ghassem Soleimani, the chief of a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps called Al Quds, or the Jerusalem Force—the arm of the Iranian government responsible for sponsoring terror attacks on Israeli targets."
The European Union lists him as "Senior Intelligence Officer of Hezbollah".
Arrest warrants and attempted assassination
Various law enforcement agencies attempted to capture Mughniyah. The United States tried to secure his capture in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1986, but were thwarted by French refusal to detain him.
The United States tried to capture him several times afterwards, beginning with a 1995 operation that was put in place after it was realized Mughniyah was flying a Middle East Airlines
Middle East Airlines
Middle East Airlines – Air Liban S.A.L. , more commonly known as Middle East Airlines , is the national flag-carrier airline of Lebanon, with its head office in Beirut, near Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport...
charter flight A-310 Airbus from Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
to Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
after a meeting with several militant leaders, and was scheduled to make a stop-over in Saudi Arabia. But Saudi airport officials refused to allow the plane to make its stop-over, thwarting American bids to arrest Mughniyah.
The next year, U.S. military personnel planned to seize him off a ship in Doha, Qatar, but the operation was called off. This 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 canceled at the last minute when it could not be verified that Mughniyah was actually on board the Pakistani ship.
On October 10, 2001, Mughniyah appeared on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists
FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Terrorists is a list of fugitives who have been indicted by sitting Federal grand juries in the United States district courts, for alleged crimes of terrorism. The initial list was formed in late 2001 in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks...
, which was released to the public by President Bush, with a reward of up to $5 million offered for information leading to his arrest. This reward remained outstanding as of 2006.
The Israeli government made several alleged attempts to assassinate Mughniyah. His brother Fuad Mugniyah was killed in a 1994 Beirut car bombing. (Another brother, Jihad, was killed in a car-bombing assassination attempt on the life of Hezbollah founder Sheikh Fadlallah in 1985, this one rumored to be the work of the CIA via the South Lebanese Army.)
The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine suggested that Mugniyah attended a meeting between Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n
President Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad is the President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000. Al-Assad was elected in 2000, re-elected in 2007, unopposed each time.- Early Life :...
. He was there representing Hezbollah in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. Mugniyah had been informed that he was at the top of a US military and CIA assassination list. For this reason, he was said to avoid certain areas of Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
for fear of being killed by CIA operators.
Assassination
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
. He had been the target of Israeli Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
assassination attempts since the 1990s. Furthermore, The Times states that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003....
met privately with Mossad director Meir Dagan on the day of Mughniyeh's burial, reportedly to congratulate him. On February 27 Al-Quds Al-Arabi
Al-Quds Al-Arabi
Al-Quds Al-Arabi , is an independent pan-Arab daily newspaper published in London since 1989. The paper is owned by Palestinian expatriates, and edited by Abd al-Bari Atwan who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza Strip in 1950. Its motto is . Its circulation is estimated to be...
reported that several Arab states helped the Mossad carry out the bombing. Accounts cited by the Jerusalem Post state that Mughniyeh was assassinated in revenge for the 2006 Lebanon War, which he had a role in instigating. Mossad tasked the Kidon unit, a school of assassins which operates under the Caesarea Branch, with the mission. An account stated that operatives entered Damascus. The team waited for Mughniyeh. When Mughniyeh walked past a car which had been loaded with explosives, the entire street shook. Mughniyeh’s body parts were later found scattered across the street. His assassination took Hizbullah completely by surprise, particularly Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the organization’s leader, who still delivers speeches from a bunker, But Israel officially denied being behind the killing. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell suggested that it is also possible that internal Hezbollah factions or Syria may be to blame for the killing.
Without naming a source, the German newspaper Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...
said a story had been circulated amongst German diplomatic staff that it was possible that associates of Assef Shawkat had assassinated Mughniyah in revenge for having tipped the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad is the President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000. Al-Assad was elected in 2000, re-elected in 2007, unopposed each time.- Early Life :...
, about coup plot against him, which the Syrian government had foiled a couple of days before Mugniyah's 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.
At Mugniyah's funeral, Hassan Nasrallah appeared via video link and in the lengthy eulogy he delivered for his fallen comrade, he declared: "You crossed the borders. Zionists
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, if you want an open war, let it be an open war anywhere."
Lebanese senior cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said that "the resistance has lost one of its pillars."
Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
condemned the killing as: "yet another brazen example of organised state terrorism by the Zionist regime".
According to The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
, Mughniyah was at a reception marking the 29th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution hosted by Iranian ambassador to Syria, Hojatoleslam Ahmad Musavi. Mughniyah left at 10:35 pm and went to his silver Mitsubishi Pajero
Mitsubishi Pajero
The Mitsubishi Pajero is a sport utility vehicle manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors. It was named after Leopardus pajeros, the Pampas Cat which is native to the Patagonia plateau region of southern Argentina. However, since pajero is an offensive term for "wanker" in Spanish, alternative names have...
nearby. The driver seat headrest had been replaced by one with a high-explosive, which detonated when Mughniyah entered the vehicle.
The Syrian investigation found that he was killed by a car bomb parked nearby and detonated by remote.
The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported that Hezbollah sources said they would retaliate for Mughniyah's death by assassinating Israeli leaders.
The Bush administration welcomed news of his 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."
Reaction
The assassination of Mughniyah was condemned in some parts of the world. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema termed the assassination "terror" in an interview, while Gideon Levy of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz claimed the assassination actually undermined Israel's security. In Kuwait, there was a rally mourning his death. A member of Kuwait's parliament asserted "Mugniyah is a martyr hero who shook the grounds beneath the Zionist enemy (Israel) and America," Jordan's largest political party condemned the assassination as a cowardly crime. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei said "The bloodthirsty Zionists must know that the pure blood of martyrs like Imad Mugniyah will grow hundreds like him and will increase resistance against corruption and atrocities twofold." When polled shortly afterwards, over 61 percent of Lebanese believed Hezbollah's retaliation for Imad Mugniyah's killing by Israel would be justified.External links
- Hizbollah Website
- Mughniyah Biography - Hizbollah Website
- Assassinated Hezbollah Terrorist Avoided Detection for long time VOA story exploring Mugniyeh's flight from justice.
- Mind of Mugniyeh Exploration of Munigyeh a year before his death.
- Blood and Champagne Essay by Uri AvneryUri AvneryUri Avnery is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement.A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965–74 and 1979–81...
- Rewards for Justice Site
- Mugniyah profile at FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
- "Hizbullah Terrorism in Argentina" (a Federation of American Scientist editorial of the Free Europe Radio service
- In The Party Of God: Hezbollah sets up operations in South America and the United States
- In The Party of God: Are Terrorists In Lebanon Preparing for a Larger War
- Mind of Mughniyeh
- "Deadly infiltrator's trail" ("Washington Times" commentary)
- "U.S. renews bid to catch Beirut bombing suspect" (CNN, 10/10/01)
- 60 Minutes II article about Mugniyah and an attempted seizure of him back in 1996
- 1/2002 article by the British newspaper Telegraph linking him the Karine A incident
- PBS Frontline website for its show on the Hizbullah
- Another Frontline website- interview with a former CIA officer about Mughniyah
- Michael Ledeen on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
- Hizballah leader Hassan Nassrallah and top command are holed up in Hermel, the northern Lebanese panhandle bordering Syria - July 21, 2006
- http://allaboutmug.narod.ru 28 January 2008 How Mughniyah met with French officials to secure the release of French hostages
- Uli Derickson - Legacy of Courage
- The Unknown Knowns of Who Killed Hizbullah Commander IslamOnline.net (Retrieved on 24-07-2008)
- Hezbollah warlord was an enigma Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
- August 31, 2008