TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Elusive Terrorist Killed By Car Bomb

ADVERTISEMENT

By ROBERT F. WORTH and NADA BAKRI, The New York Times

Published: February 14, 2008

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A top Hezbollah commander, long sought by the United States for his role in terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in the 1980s, died Tuesday night in Damascus when a bomb detonated under the car he was in, Syrian officials said.

No one claimed credit for killing the man, Imad Mughniyeh, who had been in hiding for many years and was one of the most wanted and elusive terrorists in the world.

Mughniyeh, 45, was suspected of planning the devastating 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and a Marine barracks in Beirut, the hijacking of a TWA jetliner in 1985, and a series of high-profile kidnappings in the 1980s, among other crimes.

Israel accused him of helping plan the 1992 bombing of its embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed, and of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in the city, in which 85 people died.

Widely thought to have undergone plastic surgery to avoid detection, Mughniyeh, had not been seen in public for years and was thought to move among Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, he had been involved in more terrorist attacks against Americans than any other individual, and at one point he had a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head.

"The world is a better place without this man in it," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Hezbollah Mourns Him As Hero
Hezbollah announced Mughniyeh's death hours after reports first emerged late Tuesday night that a powerful bomb had exploded under an SUV in Damascus, killing its occupant and damaging nine or 10 other cars.

Hezbollah's Al Manar television station hailed Mughniyeh as a hero.

"With pride and honor we announce that a great jihadi leader has joined the procession of martyrs in the Islamic resistance," said a statement read on the station. "The martyr was killed at the hands of the Israeli Zionists."

Israel officially distanced itself from the killing and, without specifically naming Mughniyeh, said that it was looking into the attack in Syria. Some former Israeli security officials did not hide their satisfaction at Mughniyeh's assassination.

Danny Yatom, a Labor parliamentarian and former chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, called Mughniyeh's death "a great achievement for the free world in its fight on terror."

Israel has proved its willingness to carry out attacks in Syria. In September, Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear site in the Syrian desert. In 2004, a Hamas commander was killed in Damascus by a similar car bomb, prompting accusations against Israel.

Syria normally maintains very tight control over security. For that reason, there was widespread speculation Wednesday that Syria might have cooperated, possibly as part of a deal with Israel or the United States.

Asked in Washington whether the United States had played any role in the killing of Mughniyeh, Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, would say only that he was "not familiar with the circumstances of the death."

He Was 1 Of World's Most Wanted

Mughniyeh, also known as Hajj Rudwan, was one of the world's most wanted men.

He was indicted in the United States for the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, during which Shiite militants shot Navy diver Robert Stethem, who was a passenger on the plane, and dumped his body on the tarmac of Beirut airport.

The hijacking produced one of the most iconic images of pre-Sept. 11 terrorism: a photo of the 727's pilot leaning out the cockpit window with a gunman waving a pistol in front of his face.

In the 1980s, Mughniyeh was also thought to have directed a string of kidnappings of Americans and others in Lebanon.

The hostages included The Associated Press's chief Mideast correspondent Terry Anderson, who was held for more than six years until his release in 1991; and CIA station chief William Buckley, who was tortured and killed in 1985.

"I can't say I'm either surprised or sad. He was not a good man - certainly, the primary actor in my kidnapping and many others," Anderson said Wednesday. "To hear that his career has finally ended is a good thing, and it's appropriate that he goes up in a car bomb."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT