Hezbollah terr;orist leader Imad Mugniyah killed in Syria ( Trained Al Queda in Bomb Techniques )

Imad Mugniyah, the leader of Hezbollah’s military wing and a senior officer in Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, has been killed in yesterday’s car bombing in Damascus, Syria. Mugniyah was behind multiple terror attacks against US, Israel, and other nations, and most famously the 1983 Beirut suicide attacks which killed 241 US Marines and 58 French paratroopers. Hezbollah has confirmed Mugniyah’s death, and has issued the following statement:

The culprits of the car bombing in Syria are unclear. Syria is a police state, and security would be tight for a senior Hezbollah and Qods Force leader such as Mugniyah.

Hezbollah and Iran are blaming Israel for Mugniyah’s death. "This action is yet another brazen example of organized state terrorism by the Zionist regime," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali. Israel has denied any involvement in Mugniyah’s death.

But Israel was very likely behind Mugniyah's death. The method of assassination -- by booby-trapped automobile -- strongly suggests that Israel is responsible, bears Israel's signature. The Jerusalem Post reported the car's driver's seat and the rear seat were "blown away by the force of the blast" in a well-placed bomb.

The Jerusalem Post's report of a well-placed car bomb seems to be confirmed by Al Jazeera reporter Abdul Hamid Tawfiq, who is reporting from Damascus. "When taking a close look at the car, we noticed that it was not burnt or blackened, but the driver’s and passengers’ seats were damaged." Tawfiq said. He believed that a bomb had been planted under the driver's seat.

This description matched the assassination Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil, a key Hamas operative in Damascus, who was killed by Israeli intelligence in September 2004.

Mugniyah began his career in terrorism in the 1970s with Force 17, the personal bodyguard detachment for Yassar Arafat, and later joined Hezbollah. His more infamous terror attacks include the April 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing 63; the October 1983 simultaneous truck bombings on the U.S. Marine and French paratrooper barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Marines and 58 French soldiers; the hijacking of TWA 847; the kidnappings and murders of U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic personnel in Beirut; the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1992, killing 29 people; the bombing of a Jewish cultural center in 1994, killing 86 people. He is suspected of direct involvement in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. servicemen. He was also behind the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers in Northern Israel, the event which triggered the Israel-Hezbollah War in July 2006. Mugniyah likely played a role in the establishment of Iran's ratlines into Iraq and the creation of the Special Groups, which have been built to mirror Hezbollah.

Mugniyah had extensive links with the Iranian intelligence services, and was directly linked to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, and former al Qaeda in Iraq commander Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Mugniyah was on FBI's list of 22 most wanted terrorists, with a $5 million dollar reward for information leading to his capture. U.S. Special Forces aborted a raid to capture Mugniyah in the Persian Gulf in 1996. He was believed to have visited Syria in January of 2006, attending a meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Assad.

Mugniyah likely played a support role in al Qaeda’s September 11 attacks on the US. The 9-11 Commission Report was explicit about Iran's connections with al Qaeda. "The relationship between al Qaeda and Iran demonstrated that Sunni-Shia divisions did not necessarily pose an insurmountable barrier to cooperation in terrorist operations." Contacts between Iran, Hezbollah and al Qaeda were established in Sudan in the early 1990s. "Al Qaeda members received advice and training from Hezbollah," according the 9-11 Commission report. Many of al Qaeda's 9-11 hijackers transited through Iran. "After 9/11, Iran and Hezbollah wished to conceal any past evidence of cooperation with Sunni terrorists associated with al Qaeda."

Hezbollah is essentially the Lebanese branch of Iran's Qods Force. Mugniyah is also a senior leader in Qods Force, the special operations branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Dr. Magnus Ranstorp, an expert on Hezbollah describes Mugniyah as standing "with one foot within Hezbollah (reporting to Nasrallah directly) and with one foot in Iran inside the architectures of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the al-Qods unit within the Iranian Pasdaran [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps]." Dr. Ranstorp also said "there are two Iranian representatives (from the Iranian embassy in Beirut/Damascus) that provide a direct link on matters that require strategic guidance or Iranian assistance or arbitration" to Hezbollah's executive Shura, or council.

From the Blogosphere (flopping Aces ):

World’s 2nd Biggest Terrorist, Imad Mugniyah, Sent To Hell

*************************EXCERPT**********************

UPDATED,

(Added an interesting old news report on this nixes the idea that VP Cheney was making up intel re Iraq and 911.)

Terrorist leader blows up.

Irony?

Before the attacks of September 11th, 2001, a man named Imad Mugniyah held the pole position in the race to kill the most Americans. In fact, first reports on that day 7yrs ago seemed to indicate that he was the mastermind of the attacks and not Osama Bin Laden. Imad was the #1 operational leader for Hezzbollah’s international operations, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans, and now he’s dead-blown up in Damascus, Syria according to Hezzbollah and multiple reporting services. Of course the Arab media blames the Israelis, and it probably was them, but it doesn’t matter. Whether it was the Israelis (he was their version of Osama Bin Laden and they searched for him for at 20 or 30yrs-maybe more), CIA, a rival group, or yet another example of a bombmaking attempt gone bad…it doesn’t matter. A big bad guy is gone.

Given Hezzbollah’s open praise of the Democratic Party and the terrorist group’s endorsement for the 06 midterm elections, it will be interesting to see how the party reacts.

UPDATE:

On October 31, 2001 The Electronic Herald (UK)
Reported the Following Story:
©The Electronic Herald / Reported by Ian Bruce
ISRAEL’S military intelligence service, Aman, issued an urgent warning of an impending terrorist “spectacular” against America, several days before the suicide bombers flew passenger airliners into New York’s Trade Towers and the Pentagon on September 11.
Aman had no details of the targets, but picked up enough indicators of major terrorist activity from a combination of informants and electronic eavesdropping to send out an alert, which also covered US interests in Britain, France and Germany.
Much of the Israeli intelligence centered on Imad Mughniyeh, head of the Iranian-backed Hizbollah movement’s foreign operations section, and on Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born terrorist mastermind reputed to be Osama bin Laden’s chosen successor.
The Israelis say they have evidence linking both men to agents representing SSO, Iraq’s foreign intelligence service, and believe Baghdad has provided finance and logistical support to them.
Links between the terrorist network and Iraq have been established by Pakistan’s shadowy ISI agency and by the Czech Republic’s counter-intelligence service.
Salah Suleiman, an Iraqi SSO agent, was detained on the Pakistan border last October after a series of trips into Taliban-controlled territory to meet bin Laden. After interrogation, he was deported.
Iraqi agent, Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani, has been expelled by the Czechs for “conduct incompatible with his diplomatic status”. They had been monitoring his activities after a tip-off from Israel that he was planning to bomb Radio Free Europe, a station financed by the CIA that broadcasts to Iraq and Iran. Baghdad regards the broadcasts as “an act of aggression”.
During the surveillance, they photographed Al-Ani with Mohammed Atta, the al Qaeda agent believed to have flown the first plane into the World Trade Center.

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From the Blogosphere( Hot Air):

Score: Imad Mughniyeh killed by car bomb; Update: Revenge for Hariri? Update: Israeli M.O.?
posted at 8:34 am on February 13, 2008 by Allahpundit

**********************MAJOR EXCERPT*******************************

His rap sheet, which includes the 1983 Marine barracks bombing and the 1985 TWA hijacking, speaks for itself. So legendary a figure is he that the CIA was worried last year about him organizing a Shiite jihadi offensive against U.S. troops in Iraq in case we bombed Iran. Newsweek’s Iranian source laughed that off by claiming he was old news and hadn’t been involved in any major Hezbollah operations in a decade, which is plausible given the CIA’s level of competence but not so plausible given Mossad’s, which also wanted him dead.

The site of the bombing: Damascus. Did the Israelis finally get him or did he outlive his usefulness to Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah? Stand by for updates.

Update: The problem with weighing a fish this big and mysterious is that you can plausibly link him to anything. He’s been pulling off major operations and avoiding the world’s best intelligence services for years. The JPost article names him as Hezbollah’s number two, and why not? Another JPost article says he co-founded the group and ties him to Al Qaeda:

He also apparently had strong ties with Al Qaida and according to the testimony of Ali Mohammed, a senior Al Qaida operative who was arrested for involvement in the attacks on American embassies in Africa, Mughniyeh met with Bin Laden in Sudan in 1993. Hizbullah, Mohammed said, provided explosives training for Al-Qaida fighters. This relationship and the fact that Mughniyeh was Hizbullah’s liaison to Al Qaida, has led western intelligence agencies to raise the possibility that he was also involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Reminds me of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed’s Gitmo confession, where he confessed to everything under the sun. How do you tell true from false about a guy who has been involved in almost everything under the sun?

Update: More from that JPost piece. Big fish: “In January 2006, Mughniyeh is believed to have traveled with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Damascus for a meeting with Nasrallah, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Salah.”

Update: Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom celebrates:

Yatom called Mughniyah’s death a serious blow to Hezbollah, both in terms of morale and in terms of its operational capabilities, saying the assassination could only have been made possible by penetrating deep into the organization.
“Whoever can take him out can take out anyone in Hezbollah,” he said. “It will take Hezbollah a long time to find an heir.”

Update: Former CIA agent Robert Baer calls him the most capable operative chased by the agency during his time there, KGB included.

Update: For what little it’s worth, Debka says Mughniyeh was the liaison between Bin Laden and, er, Ayatollah Khamenei. And here’s the inside job theory:

While America and Israel come first to mind as responsible for Mughniyeh’s death, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources note that a possible inside job is worth considering. Dissatisfied with his performance in the 2006 Lebanon War against Israel, Tehran deposed Hizballah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasralah as its supreme commander and replaced him with Mughniyeh.
Nasrallah was confined to political functions, while his successor was assigned the task of rehabilitating Hizballah militia forces and preparing them for the next war on Israel.
The dead terrorist may have set up his headquarters in Damascus under the protection of Syrian and Iranian security services because he did not feel safe in Lebanon. Penetrating these two security belts to slay the wanted man was undoubtedly an exceptional intelligence feat.

Update: Asharq al-Awsat is a Saudi paper so sprinkle any salt left over from the Debka piece on this. But if Mughniyeh was as operationally important as he appears to have been and if Iran is in fact using Hezbollah to train the Mahdi Army or its, ahem, “rogue members,” then needless to say this helps us out in Iraq, too.

In 2005, he was tasked with organizing relations between the different Shiaa armed factions in southern Iraq. Mughniyeh then became the field supervisor of the revolutionary guard’s intelligence bureau in the region. That same year, he traveled to Lebanon through Syria, accompanied by Iranian officials, under the name of Sayyid Mehdi Hashemi, an Iranian national with a diplomatic passport.
In early 2006, reports indicated Mughniyeh had been seen in the city of Basra, where he is alleged to have been facilitating the entry of Mehdi army fighters into Iran, to take part in military training. In April, Mughniyeh was said to have returned to Lebanon where he held senior positions in Hezbollah’s intelligence services and, according to Israeli sources, planned the operation to kidnap Israeli soldiers, based on orders from Iran’s revolutionary guards.

Follow the link for plenty more on his alleged Bin Laden connection.

Update: Rusty e-mails with a reminder that former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri was killed by a car bomb three years ago tomorrow, making this a possible act of revenge. Could anti-Syrian elements pull off a hit this big, though? Everyone suspects Mossad mainly because they’re possibly the only ones with the skills and balls to do it.

Update: If not a friend of Osama, an inspiration:

Mughniyeh was not suspected of involvement in 9/11, but he was a role model for bin Laden, who used the 1983 Marine barracks bombing as a standard, CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said.
“Because if you think about the attack, pretty much immediately afterward President Reagan ordered the United States out of Lebanon, and so that’s the model bin Laden wanted to implement everywhere — attack the United States in places like Yemen or in Kenya, or in Tanzania, or even the United States itself, and it will pull out of the Middle East,” Bergen said.

Update: Ynet has a photo of what was left of the car.

Update: Two nice catches by Roggio: The method here matches the Israeli method in taking out a Hamas operative in 2004, and the links between Hezbollah and AQ aren’t quite as tenuous as I suggested. They were mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report, in fact.

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SCENE OF THE BLAST IN DAMASCUS:

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