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Posted on 02/15/2008 12:10:19 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah has appointed a successor to its senior guerrilla commander Imad Moughniyah who was assassinated in Syria this week, a Lebanese security source said on Friday.
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The source said the appointment was made hours after the announcement of Moughniyah's death in a car bomb in Damascus on Tuesday. He did not identify the successor who would now command Hezbollah's formidable and well-armed guerrilla army.
A joint investigation into the bombing by Syrians, Iranians and Hezbollah was well under way and suspects had been arrested in the Syrian capital, the source said.
Hezbollah and its main backer Iran have accused Israel of killing Moughniyah, who was among the United States' most wanted men. The Israeli government has denied any links, though its Mossad spy service had been hunting him for two decades.
"A successor to Imad Moughniyah has been appointed, which is natural," said the source, who requested anonymity. "That's how Hezbollah works, they move quickly to choose successors of fallen leaders."
The source said the successor was not one of the two names being circulated in the Israeli media. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has threatened Israel with "open war" in retaliation for the killing.
Moughniyah had been in charge of Hezbollah's security organ. He gained legendary status in Hezbollah for a string of attacks on Israeli and Western targets in Lebanon in the 1980s.
An Iranian Arabic television station released mobile phone footage of the scene minutes after the blast that killed Moughniyah, chief of the forces of a group that fought a 34-day war against Israel in 2006.
It showed the car on fire and people running past it.
The source said the investigation showed Moughniyah was killed by a car bomb parked close to his car. It was detonated remotely as he walked past after leaving a building he had been visiting.
Early reports said the bomb had been placed inside Moughniyah's car.
JOINT INVESTIGATION
The suspects arrested were mostly Palestinians residing in Syria, the Lebanese source said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki agreed with Syrian officials during a visit to Damascus on Thursday to set up a joint team to investigate the killing, Mottaki's deputy Alireza Sheik-Attar said on Friday.
Mottaki had attended Moughniyah's funeral in Beirut.
Moughniyah commanded the Islamic Jihad, a shadowy pro-Iranian group which emerged in Lebanon in the early 1980s and was believed to be linked to Hezbollah.
The group claimed many kidnappings and bombings but disappeared after the release of the last Western hostages in Lebanon shortly after the end of the civil war in 1990.
Moughniyah was implicated in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks in Beirut, which killed more than 350 people.
Israel accuses Moughniyah of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and of involvement in a 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital that killed 28.
The United States indicted him for his role in planning and participating in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner and the killing of an American passenger.
(Editing by Robert Woodward)
The next target is coming onto the field...
I hope Hezbollah commanders start becoming as disposable as the al Qaeda in Iraq leaders are now.
I love how these organization's leaders are targeted and soon facing their reward of 72 rasins in hell!
Great, a new TARGET,
Let’s get the targeting in motion boys.
This gets better and better and points to eyes on the target UP CLOSE.
Picture I am referring to:
It also took out a Deputy Hezbollah commander....not sure which thread that is on.
Report from Iran: Nasrallah's Deputy Killed in Blast
**********************EXCERPT*******************
(IsraelNN.com) Hajj Hussein Halil, deputy director of Hizbullah's political affairs, also was killed in Tuesday night's car bombing that eliminated senior terrorist Imad Mughinyeh. There has been no confirmation of the Iranian report, and Hizbullah has not commented.
Assad should be shaking in his boots.
Israel took out his enrichment facility in September, and an unknown force took out some of his allies in this Mugniyah bombing...bomb in the heart of Syrian territory.
It’s a total and complete breech. Syria is owned.
Israel showed that Syria has no effective air defense...and someone just showed that hostile agents are operating inside Damascus itself...on the ground!
So once again Syria isn’t going to do anything about the attacks.
Back in September, Assad promised to strike back at Israel for their bombing in Syria. Didn’t happen.
Why?! Because the bombing signaled that Syria has no way to defend their territory from Israeli air assaults...and it would be suicidal to go to war when you can not defend yourself.
Same again for this bombing on the ground. Syria can bluster with words all day long, but what fool would go to war when war would mean certain and swift, total defeat?!
A message is being delivered. Assad get signal. All his base are belong to us.
Now lets see if his advisors today are as clever as his dad’s back in 1990...when Syria jilted Hussein and chose to be on the correct (read: strong a$$-kicking, take-no-crap) side.
Iran is encircled; Syria is infiltrated. And the American President in Office has no concerns about being re-elected.
Could the conclusion be any more obvious?!
What time of day did this hit take place? Obviously, the photo of the car is a nighttime picture, but if there were eyes on the ground in order to detonate the car, its even more impressive if this was pulled off at night. Hard to get a visual on an HVT at night.
I would include this successor in the group of suspects... he benefits the most!
It took out Moughniyah and a Deputy of Hezbollah....and the picture looks like it was an under the seat bomb......
Maybe they are tweaking with the story...as a bomb planted in a car other than Moughniyah's actual car...would be an easier deed than a bomb actually on his car....but how did they know he would walk by close enough to take him out.,...and the Deputy....?
It was a little after 10pm I think....and I read Ehud Barak was informed at around 11pm....word travels fast...:-)
They were there Ernie...eyes were watching...which makes it more impressive.
George has 10 months to run hog wild. We can expect to see other terror leaders fall.
I want it to go on after he leaves office....I am swinging to McCain....at least in this area he may do better than Dubya....
Uh oh....you did it now....:-)
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