Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
February 14, 2008
Pg. 1
By Robert F. Worth and Nada Bakri
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, Syria, when a bomb detonated under the vehicle he was in, Syrian officials said.
No one claimed responsibility for killing the commander, Imad Mugniyah, who had been in hiding for many years and was one of the most wanted and elusive terrorists in the world.
Mr. Mugniyah, 45, was suspected of planning the 1983 bombings of the American Embassy and a Marine barracks in Beirut; the hijacking of a T.W.A. jetliner in 1985; and a series of high-profile kidnappings in the 1980s, among other crimes. Israel accused him of helping to plan the 1992 bombing of its embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed, and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in the city, in which 85 people died.
The embassy bombing in Beirut was a particularly sharp blow to the United States because a regional meeting of Central Intelligence Agency operatives was under way and crucial personnel were killed.
Although Mr. Mugniyah had not been accused of planning new attacks in more than a decade, American officials sometimes referred to him and his Hezbollah peers as the “A team” of international terrorism because of their cold professionalism and secrecy.
Widely believed to have undergone plastic surgery to avoid detection, Mr. Mugniyah had not been seen in public for years and was thought to have moved between Iran, Syria and Lebanon at various times. Before 2001, he had been involved in more terrorist attacks against Americans than any other person, and at one point he had a $25 million American bounty on his head.
“The world is a better place without this man in it,” said the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, on Wednesday.
Hezbollah announced Mr. Mugniyah’s death hours after reports first emerged late Tuesday night that a powerful bomb had exploded under a sport utility vehicle in an upscale neighborhood in Damascus, the capital, killing its occupant and damaging 9 or 10 other vehicles.
Hezbollah did not say how or where Mr. Mugniyah was killed, but the Syrian state news agency confirmed Wednesday that he was the man killed in the bombing, citing Syria’s interior minister, Bassam Abdul-Majeed, who said Syria “condemns this cowardly terrorist act and offers condolences to the martyr’s family and to the Lebanese people.”
A television station run by Hezbollah, Al Manar, hailed Mr. Mugniyah 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 Mr. Mugniyah, said that it was looking into the attack in Syria. But some former Israeli security officials did not hide their satisfaction at Mr. Mugniyah’s assassination. Danny Yatom, a Labor Party lawmaker and a former chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, called Mr. Mugniyah’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, Israel bombed a suspected nuclear site in the Syrian desert. In 2004, a Hamas commander was killed in Damascus by a bomb, prompting accusations against Israel.
Syria normally maintains tight security, especially in the capital. For that reason, there was also widespread speculation on Wednesday that Syria might have cooperated in the bombing, possibly as part of a deal with Israel or the United States.
Asked whether the United States had played any role in the killing of Mr. Mugniyah, Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, would say only that he was “not familiar with the circumstances of the death.”
Shortly after Hezbollah announced Mr. Mugniyah’s death, mourners began arriving at the Moujamaa al-Shouhada, a building in the Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
In Tary Dibba in southern Lebanon, where Mr. Mugniyah was born to peasant parents, black flags were raised and stores were closed. After his body was brought back to Beirut on Wednesday afternoon, Al Manar showed black-clad guerrillas standing on either side of his coffin in a Hezbollah hall in the southern suburbs.
Hezbollah announced that a mass funeral would be held Thursday, which it said would be a day of mourning in some parts of southern Lebanon.
Even some political figures who are bitterly opposed to Hezbollah, like the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, sent condolences on Wednesday.
Mr. Mugniyah’s funeral will coincide with an especially delicate occasion in Lebanon: the third anniversary of the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Western-backed March 14 coalition, led by Mr. Hariri’s son Saad, has called for huge demonstrations, which many Lebanese fear could lead to confrontations with Hezbollah.
Mr. Mugniyah, who was also known as Hajj Rudwan, was one of the world’s most wanted men. American prosecutors charged him in the hijacking of the T.W.A. jetliner in 1985, during which a United States Navy diver, Robert D. Stethem, was shot dead and dumped onto the tarmac of Beirut’s airport.
Mr. Mugniyah was also accused of arranging shipments of arms from Iran to Palestinian groups. American officials say Mr. Mugniyah was behind the 1983 bombing of the Marine compound in Beirut, in which 241 service members were killed. A car bomb at the American Embassy there in the same year killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.
The United States also asserts that he was behind the torture and killing of William Buckley, the C.I.A. station chief in Beirut, in 1984; the kidnapping and killing of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins of the Marines, who was on peacekeeping duty in Lebanon in 1988; and in his capacity as leader of the Islamic Jihad Organization, the seizure of a number of Western hostages in Beirut during the 1980s.
In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said, “Israel rejects the attempt by terrorist elements to ascribe to it any involvement whatsoever in this incident.”
Gideon Ezra, a minister from Israel’s governing Kadima Party and a former deputy chief of the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that many countries had an interest in killing Mr. Mugniyah but that “Israel, too, was hurt by him, more than other countries in recent years.”
Mr. Ezra said, “Of course I don’t know who killed him, but whoever did should be congratulated.”
Witnesses said the bombing that killed Mr. Mugniyah took place just after 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Tantheem Kafer Souseh, an upscale neighborhood of Damascus, close to an Iranian school and a police station.
The targeted vehicle, believed to be a black S.U.V., was badly damaged in the attack “like a shredded metal can,” according to Housham Nasaiseh, 19, who works in a sweets shop nearby and who arrived at the scene a few minutes after the explosion.
The police were removing a body from the vehicle when he arrived, Mr. Nasaiseh said. Within an hour, the shattered vehicle had been towed away. By morning the scene had been cleared, and the only signs of the attack were a black mark on the ground and scars on the sidewalk and nearby buildings.
Reporting was contributed by James Risen and Sheryl Gay Stolberg from Washington, Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem, Nawara Mahfoud from Damascus, Syria, and John Kifner from New York.
February 14, 2008
Pg. 1
By Robert F. Worth and Nada Bakri
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, Syria, when a bomb detonated under the vehicle he was in, Syrian officials said.
No one claimed responsibility for killing the commander, Imad Mugniyah, who had been in hiding for many years and was one of the most wanted and elusive terrorists in the world.
Mr. Mugniyah, 45, was suspected of planning the 1983 bombings of the American Embassy and a Marine barracks in Beirut; the hijacking of a T.W.A. jetliner in 1985; and a series of high-profile kidnappings in the 1980s, among other crimes. Israel accused him of helping to plan the 1992 bombing of its embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed, and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in the city, in which 85 people died.
The embassy bombing in Beirut was a particularly sharp blow to the United States because a regional meeting of Central Intelligence Agency operatives was under way and crucial personnel were killed.
Although Mr. Mugniyah had not been accused of planning new attacks in more than a decade, American officials sometimes referred to him and his Hezbollah peers as the “A team” of international terrorism because of their cold professionalism and secrecy.
Widely believed to have undergone plastic surgery to avoid detection, Mr. Mugniyah had not been seen in public for years and was thought to have moved between Iran, Syria and Lebanon at various times. Before 2001, he had been involved in more terrorist attacks against Americans than any other person, and at one point he had a $25 million American bounty on his head.
“The world is a better place without this man in it,” said the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, on Wednesday.
Hezbollah announced Mr. Mugniyah’s death hours after reports first emerged late Tuesday night that a powerful bomb had exploded under a sport utility vehicle in an upscale neighborhood in Damascus, the capital, killing its occupant and damaging 9 or 10 other vehicles.
Hezbollah did not say how or where Mr. Mugniyah was killed, but the Syrian state news agency confirmed Wednesday that he was the man killed in the bombing, citing Syria’s interior minister, Bassam Abdul-Majeed, who said Syria “condemns this cowardly terrorist act and offers condolences to the martyr’s family and to the Lebanese people.”
A television station run by Hezbollah, Al Manar, hailed Mr. Mugniyah 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 Mr. Mugniyah, said that it was looking into the attack in Syria. But some former Israeli security officials did not hide their satisfaction at Mr. Mugniyah’s assassination. Danny Yatom, a Labor Party lawmaker and a former chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, called Mr. Mugniyah’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, Israel bombed a suspected nuclear site in the Syrian desert. In 2004, a Hamas commander was killed in Damascus by a bomb, prompting accusations against Israel.
Syria normally maintains tight security, especially in the capital. For that reason, there was also widespread speculation on Wednesday that Syria might have cooperated in the bombing, possibly as part of a deal with Israel or the United States.
Asked whether the United States had played any role in the killing of Mr. Mugniyah, Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, would say only that he was “not familiar with the circumstances of the death.”
Shortly after Hezbollah announced Mr. Mugniyah’s death, mourners began arriving at the Moujamaa al-Shouhada, a building in the Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
In Tary Dibba in southern Lebanon, where Mr. Mugniyah was born to peasant parents, black flags were raised and stores were closed. After his body was brought back to Beirut on Wednesday afternoon, Al Manar showed black-clad guerrillas standing on either side of his coffin in a Hezbollah hall in the southern suburbs.
Hezbollah announced that a mass funeral would be held Thursday, which it said would be a day of mourning in some parts of southern Lebanon.
Even some political figures who are bitterly opposed to Hezbollah, like the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, sent condolences on Wednesday.
Mr. Mugniyah’s funeral will coincide with an especially delicate occasion in Lebanon: the third anniversary of the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Western-backed March 14 coalition, led by Mr. Hariri’s son Saad, has called for huge demonstrations, which many Lebanese fear could lead to confrontations with Hezbollah.
Mr. Mugniyah, who was also known as Hajj Rudwan, was one of the world’s most wanted men. American prosecutors charged him in the hijacking of the T.W.A. jetliner in 1985, during which a United States Navy diver, Robert D. Stethem, was shot dead and dumped onto the tarmac of Beirut’s airport.
Mr. Mugniyah was also accused of arranging shipments of arms from Iran to Palestinian groups. American officials say Mr. Mugniyah was behind the 1983 bombing of the Marine compound in Beirut, in which 241 service members were killed. A car bomb at the American Embassy there in the same year killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.
The United States also asserts that he was behind the torture and killing of William Buckley, the C.I.A. station chief in Beirut, in 1984; the kidnapping and killing of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins of the Marines, who was on peacekeeping duty in Lebanon in 1988; and in his capacity as leader of the Islamic Jihad Organization, the seizure of a number of Western hostages in Beirut during the 1980s.
In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said, “Israel rejects the attempt by terrorist elements to ascribe to it any involvement whatsoever in this incident.”
Gideon Ezra, a minister from Israel’s governing Kadima Party and a former deputy chief of the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that many countries had an interest in killing Mr. Mugniyah but that “Israel, too, was hurt by him, more than other countries in recent years.”
Mr. Ezra said, “Of course I don’t know who killed him, but whoever did should be congratulated.”
Witnesses said the bombing that killed Mr. Mugniyah took place just after 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Tantheem Kafer Souseh, an upscale neighborhood of Damascus, close to an Iranian school and a police station.
The targeted vehicle, believed to be a black S.U.V., was badly damaged in the attack “like a shredded metal can,” according to Housham Nasaiseh, 19, who works in a sweets shop nearby and who arrived at the scene a few minutes after the explosion.
The police were removing a body from the vehicle when he arrived, Mr. Nasaiseh said. Within an hour, the shattered vehicle had been towed away. By morning the scene had been cleared, and the only signs of the attack were a black mark on the ground and scars on the sidewalk and nearby buildings.
Reporting was contributed by James Risen and Sheryl Gay Stolberg from Washington, Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem, Nawara Mahfoud from Damascus, Syria, and John Kifner from New York.