A Hit, Black op. very professional.

Mughniyya, Mogniyah, Moughnie, (Arabic: عماد فايز مغنية‎), alias Hajj Radwan.
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, the Hizballah's supreme commander and plotter of major anti-US and anti-Israel terror operations in the last 25 years died aged 46 in a car bomb explosion in the Damascus district of Tanzim Kafr Susa Tuesday night, Feb. 12.

Iran, Syria and Hizballah are certain that the bomb planted in the master terrorist's Mitsubishi Pajero in the heart of the Syrian capital...a small explosive inserted between the driver's seat and the back seats, which destroyed only one part of the vehicle. The front and rear remained intact. Mughniyeh was driving alone to a reception marking Islamic Revolution Day at the Iranian embassy in the Romana district.

Mughniyeh as the only undercover agent in the Middle East who enjoys the complete personal trust of both Iranian supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden.

He orchestrated the suicide bombings of US Marine and French Beirut headquarters, in which 241 Marines and 58 French soldiers were killed, prompting a decision by President Ronald Reagan to evacuate US troops from Lebanon.

In 1983, he orchestrated the US embassy bombing, which killed 63 people and wiped out the top CIA Middle East staff. That year, the Israeli command center in Tyre was blown up killing scores of troops.

In 1985, the United States indicted him for hijacking TWA Flight 847 and the resulting death of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem.

Mughniyeh was also infamous for numerous brutal kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut through the 1980s, most notably, that of Terry Anderson and U.S. Army Col William Francis Buckley, who was later murdered.

The dead terrorist's association with Tehran and its violent overseas exploits went back twenty years. In 1988, in collusion with Tehran, he organized the kidnapping of Colonel William R. Rich Higgins, the most senior American intelligence officer in Lebanon, who was tortured to death by Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen and Hizballah operatives.

The same partnership is believed to have staged the Khobar Towers blast in eastern Saudi Arabia on June 25, 1996, targeting US flight crews guarding Saudi oil fields. At least 19 Americans were killed and 200 injured.

Mughniyeh, acting for Tehran and Hizballah, was held responsible for the 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy and Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, in which more than a hundred people died.

He planned the kidnap and murder of three Israeli soldiers eight years ago on Mt. Dov and his hand is believed behind the abduction of two Israeli reservists in 2006.

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.
Early reports from non-Israeli intelligence sources are that no car bomb operation in Damascus is feasible without the Syrian government's assent. Responsibility is preliminarily attributed to Syria and Iran, who are thought to view Hezbollah as no longer central to their geopolitical and military goals.

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.
( unless the Syrians were behind it, knowing Israel would be blamed. G )

He who stands with one foot within Hizballah (reporting to Naserallah 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.

Imad Mugniyah

According to his Lebanese passport application, Mughniyah was born in Tayr Dibba, a poor village in southern Lebanon.

Various law enforcement agencies have attempted to capture Mugniyah. The United States tried to secure his capture in France in 1986, but were thwarted by French refusal to detain him.

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.
Compiled from : Debka, CTB, Wikipeda


Gerald
Update:
Feb 14, 2008 12:05:00 AM

Sources: 9 , Peak: 3, Current rank: 8, Previous rank: 8, Change: +120%

Bush widens Syria sanctions (AFP)

news-yahoo Thursday, February 14, 2008 4:35:00 AM CET

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Entities:Gordon Johndroe[1];

AFP - President George W. Bush said Wednesday he was widening US sanctions against Syria, targeting officials engaged in "public corruption," amid charges Damascus is destabilizing Iraq and Lebanon....

More articles..

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DEBKAfile: Tehran, Damascus, Hizballah leadership believed coordinating retaliation for Mughniyeh’s death February 13, 2008, 11:34 PM (GMT+02:00) The Pajero jeep Mughniyeh drove alone to his death This is how anxious Western and Israeli counter-terror agencies interpret the muted responses to the killing of Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus Tuesday, Feb. 12. Iran, Syria and Hizballah are certain that the bomb planted in the master terrorist’s Mitsubishi Pajero in the heart of the Syrian capital was rigged by the Israeli Mossad. They are therefore most certainly setting up a major reprisal in the form of a terrorist hit or a military assault. Wednesday night, all Hizballah’s top leaders went to ground. More...

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Magnus Ranstorp, a counterterrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College and the author of an authoritative book on Hezbollah, said that U.S. intelligence agencies maintained a team dedicated to finding Mughniyeh.

There were several near misses, including a 1995 plan to nab him when his plane landed in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials reportedly refused to let the plane land.



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