Top Hezbollah Commader Killed in SyriaU.S. Target Accused of Masterminding Suicide Bombings, HijackingsBEIRUT, Feb. 13 -- Imad Mughniyeh, a senior but shadowy Hezbollah commander accused by the United States and Israel of masterminding suicide bombings, hijackings and hostage-takings that spanned 25 years, was killed by a car bomb in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the Shiite Muslim group and other officials said Wednesday.
Hezbollah accused Israel of carrying out the attack on Mughniyeh, a charge that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office denied. In the past, Israeli officials have rarely confirmed or denied their involvement in assassinations abroad.
The elusiveness of Mughniyeh, long a target of U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies , rivaled only that of Osama bin Laden and stretched over many more years. Until Sept. 11, 2001, the attacks for which the United States blamed him represented some of the deadliest strikes against Americans, at home or abroad. Along with bin Laden, he was included on the list of 22 "most wanted terrorists" released by President Bush a month after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Although Hezbollah has always denied a role, the United States accused him of orchestrating two bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut -- in 1983 and 1984 -- killing 72 people. Among the victims was Robert Ames, then the CIA's top Middle East expert. Even more devastating were the suicide truck bombings organized against U.S. Marines and French paratroopers in Beirut in October 1983. Together, those attacks killed 300 people.
Israel accused Mughniyeh, 45, of masterminding the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 87 people and of a role in a 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in the Argentine capital that killed 28. He was wanted by the authorities there.
"With pride and honor, we announce the martyrdom of a great resistance leader who joined the procession of martyrs in the Islamic resistance," said a statement read on al-Manar, Hezbollah's television station, and published on its Web site. "The martyr, may his soul rest in peace, has been a target of the Zionists for more than 20 years."
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