Free Republic

With Iranian leaders bombastically stating once again during February that Israel will soon be destroyed, Israel's top military leader warned mid-month that a decisive armed conflict could break out in the troubled region at any time. He added that it would be a major test over the resolve and preparedness of the country's regular and reserve armed forces. This came soon after the army, air force and navy were placed on heightened alert after the Lebanese Hizbullah militia vowed to avenge the assassination of its top military commander, which it blamed on Israel. Tensions escalated even further after the group's...

(RTTNews) - Syrian sources on Wednesday told London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newpaper that several Arab nations conspired with Israel's intelligence service Mossad, to assassinate Hizbullah chief of operations Imad Mughniyeh earlier this month. The latest speculation on the assassination of the Hizbullah terror chief comes two days after the former Hizbullah commander's widow accused Syria of being behind her husband's assassination. According to the Syrian sources, Damascus was making considerable progress in the investigation of Mughniyeh's death, and would publish the results of its inquiry following the Arab league summit in Damascus in March. ... Mughniyeh was killed in a car...

Tehran, 25 Feb. (AKI) - The wife of assassinated militant leader Imad Mughniyeh, claims that Syria was behind the killing of her husband, reported Alborz, a pro-Iranian government source. Her husband, Imad Mughniyeh was killed in a bombing in Damascus on 13 February and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Syria and Iran have blamed Israel for assassinating him. Mughniyeh was the intelligence chief of Hezbollah's secretive military wing, the Islamic Resistance. "The Syrian traitors assisted in my husband's murder," said the wife. Saudi daily 'Okaz' has also entertained the idea of Syria being behind the murder of Mughniyeh. It hypothesises a...

The Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas on Thursday reported that Syria has refused to brief Hizbullah on the outcome of investigations into the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh. The report was attributed to "informed gulf sources." The report said Hizbullah had asked to be briefed on outcome of the investigations in the Mughniyeh killing by a bomb blast in Damascus on Feb. 12. Damascus rejected the Hizbullah request on the grounds that "Mughniyeh had not informed the authorities of his visit but rather entered Syria as a common visitor." The report did not disclose further details. Hizbullah had blamed the Mughniyeh killing on...

There are no written rules of engagement in the ongoing tussle between Israel and Hezbollah. And if there were, neither would stick by them for long. This has been an open war with both parties using every available resource and every trick in the book. But quite often both would accept mediation and, through third-party negotiations, they would agree to exchange prisoners and the remains of dead soldiers and fighters.

Talkbacks for this article: 105 "The cancerous growth Israel will soon disappear," Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Muhammad Ali Jafari wrote to Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the FARS news agency reported Monday. In a letter of condolence following last week's assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, Jafari said: "I am convinced that with every passing day Hizbullah's might is increasing and in the near future, we will witness the disappearance of this cancerous growth Israel by means of the Hizbullah fighters' radiation [therapy]." In the letter, in which Jafari consoled Nasrallah over the death of the "martyr," he...

"It won't be long before the conceited Zionists realize that Imad Mughniyah's blood is extremely costly, and it makes history and brings about a new victory," Hezbollah's head of the southern Lebanon region, Sheikh Nabil Kauk, said Sunday at a memorial service for the arch-terrorist who was killed in a car explosion in Damascus last week. auk, who spoke in Mughniyah's home village, Tayr Debba, in south Lebanon, added that Israel was "standing on one leg of fear and trepidation, having become the hostage of its own act of stupidity." Kauk spoke at a ceremony attended by the Iranian ambassador...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday Israel would soon be destroyed by the "hands of Hezbollah", the Lebanese group which is backed by the Islamic Republic, Fars News Agency reported. Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari made the comment in a letter to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to offer condolences after the killing of senior guerrilla commander Imad Moughniyah in a car bomb last week in Damascus. "In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous existence of Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah combatants", Jafari was...

Israel has deployed a battery of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles near the northern port city of Haifa as part of precautions against a possible attack by Lebanon's Hezbollah in response to the assassination last week of the group's top commander Imad Mughniyah, Israeli security officials said Monday. The officials said the battery was put on standby Sunday for the first time since Israel's month-long war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, when the Lebanese guerrillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel. Patriot batteries were first deployed in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, but they failed to...

The U.S. intelligence chief said Sunday that internal Hezbollah groups or Syria may be to blame for the killing of a Hezbollah commander that has led the FBI to put domestic terror squads on alert in the United States. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said the United States is still reviewing the case following the death last Tuesday of commander Imad Mughniyeh. Hezbollah blamed Israel and has pledged to attack Jewish targets worldwide in retaliation. That led the FBI last week to be vigilant for possible threats in the U.S. against synagogues and other potential Jewish targets.

The Defense Ministry has been instructed to raise its alert level due to concerns that Hizbullah will target Israelis and Jews abroad with the aid of Iran and Syria in retaliation for the death of Hizbullah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced on Sunday. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Barak said Mughniyeh was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians and soldiers over dozens of years in numerous countries worldwide. He estimated that it would take time for Hizbullah to replace him. Syria and Hizbullah still don't have a clear picture of who assassinated Mughniyeh,...

London, 15 Feb. (Asharq Al-Awsat)- Imad Mughniyeh, one of the world’s most wanted men, was killed in a car bomb in the Syrian capital, Damascus, late Tuesday night. Mughniyeh was on an FBI wanted list with a US$25 million bounty on his head, equal to the bounty that the US has put for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.Mughniyeh was implicated in a series of infamous attacks against US, Israeli and Jewish targets in Lebanon and abroad. On Wednesday, Hezbollah announced that Mughniyeh had been killed by Israeli agents. Mughniyeh was implicated in a series of infamous attacks against US,...

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the cabinet Sunday that Syria and Iran may assist Hezbollah in retaliation for the assassination of its deputy leader Tuesday in Damascus.... The defense minister said Mughniyah's death dealt a serious blow to Hezbollah and global terror in general, stressing it would take Hezbollah a long time to find a suitable replacement..... The defense establishment is concerned Hezbollah may use an explosives-laden unmanned aerial vehicle to attack a civilian or military target in northern or central Israel in retaliation for the Mughniyah assassination. The Israel Air Force has been placed on alert for such a...

NOTHING seemed very remarkable about the short, bearded man who mingled with other guests on Tuesday evening at a reception in Damascus, the Syrian capital, to mark the 29th anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iranian revolution. Yet before the night was over he was dead in the twisted wreckage of his car and the inevitable assumption was that Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, had killed him with an ingeniously planted bomb. The news spread rapidly that the dead man was Imad Mughniyeh, an elusive figure known as “the Fox” who had been one of the world’s most feared terrorist masterminds....

Thomas Joscelyn has an excellent piece on the death of Imad Mughniyeh, and his possible connections to Al Qaeda and the terror attacks of 9/11: Death by Car Bomb in Damascus. Late Tuesday night in Damascus, Imad Mugniyah, senior terrorist of Hezbollah, was killed in a car bomb explosion. It was a fitting death for a founding father of Islamic terrorism, a man who himself had built many bombs. If you had not heard of Mugniyah before, there is a good reason. Terror chieftains like Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri seek the limelight with their frequent and widely...

The German weekly Der Spiegel reported Saturday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to declare the two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah, Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser, dead. Olmert was in Germany last week, and the Germans are the chief mediators between Israel and Hezbollah on this issue. The likelihood that they are dead increases with every day that goes by with no sign of life from them. Israeli security sources confirmed last night that the intelligence community is reassessing the kidnapped soldiers' situation and is likely to make "difficult decisions" on the matter in the coming weeks. But Israel is...

Syria has denied Iranian reports that the two countries will conduct a joint investigation into the assassination of top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed by a car bomb in the Syrian capital on Tuesday night. [Imad Mughniyeh.] Imad Mughniyeh. Photo: FBI Website Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Reza Sheik Attar announced the joint probe on Friday, according to Iran's official news agency. But an unnamed Syrian official dismissed the report as "totally baseless" and said Damascus would conduct the investigation alone, Syria's state-run news agency reported late Friday. Hizbullah and its Iranian backers have accused Israel of killing...

WASHINGTON — The FBI and Department of Homeland Security sent a bulletin Friday to state and local law enforcement authorities advising them to watch for potential retaliatory strikes by Hezbollah, one day after the Lebanese militia group vowed to avenge the death of a top commander by attacking Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. "While retaliation in the U.S. homeland is unlikely, Hezbollah has demonstrated a capability to respond outside the Middle East to similar events in the past," said the intelligence bulletin sent to about 18,000 state and local law enforcement officials late Friday afternoon. The FBI also...

Syrian security forces have arrested several Palestinians suspects in connection with the assassination of Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese security source told Reuters on Friday. The source added that Hizbullah had appointed a successor to Mughniyeh within hours of his death in a car bomb blast in the Syrian capital.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria denied Iranian claims that the two countries would conduct a joint investigation into the assassination of a top Hezbollah commander, the Syrian state news agency reported.Imad Mughniyeh, who was one of the world's most wanted fugitives, was killed in a car bomb in the Syrian capital Tuesday night. He was accused of masterminding attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s.Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Reza Sheik Attar announced the joint probe on Friday, according to Iran's official news agency.But a Syrian official dismissed the report as "totally baseless" and said Damascus...