Assassination of Imad Mughniyeh | |
---|---|
Part of Hezbollah–Israel conflict and Iran–Israel proxy conflict | |
Location | Kafr Sousa, Damascus, Syria |
Date | 12 February 2008 22:20 [1] (UTC+2) |
Target | Imad Mughniyeh |
Attack type | car bomb |
Victims | 1 |
Accused | Israel United States |
On 12 February 2008, Imad Mughniyeh, a senior commander of Hezbollah, the political party and armed militia in Lebanon, was assassinated in a car bomb explosion in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of Damascus. [2] Mughniyeh had a long history of fighting the Israel Defense Forces and was a top target for Tel Aviv. Mughniyeh actively participated in the 2006 Lebanon War. [3] Mughniyeh, who was on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list, [4] was killed instantly when the explosive device detonated in a Mitsubishi Pajero. In 2024, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert publicly acknowledged for the first time that Israel was responsible for assassinating Mughniyeh. [5]
His son Jihad would become a member of the party and was killed in a raid on Mazraat al-Amal in Quneitra during the Syrian civil war. Imad Mughniyeh was initially involved in the Palestinian Fatah movement during the Lebanese civil war before Hezbollah was founded in 1982. [2] The assassination was characterized as a significant security lapse and a notable intelligence achievement for Israel, sparking suspicions of potential betrayal within the Damascus regime, particularly given that the incident occurred in a zone housing security headquarters.
Following the assassination, a joint Iranian-Syrian investigation committee was formed, coinciding with the visit of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. [6] In 2010, WikiLeaks reported that Hezbollah believed Syria was involved in Mughniyeh's assassination. [7]
Hezbollah appointed a successor to Imad Mughniyeh, whose identity was not revealed. [8]
Syrian media reported an explosion in the Kafr Assousa neighborhood that killed one person but omitted mentioning the victim's identity.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert released a statement denying any Israeli involvement in the assassination. [9] Danny Yatom, the former director of the Mossad, stated that he was not aware of who was responsible for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh but regarded the operation as a significant achievement for the intelligence community. Yatom further noted that Mughniyeh was on par with Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda.
Gideon Ezra, the Minister of Environment, Security Cabinet member, and former deputy head of the Shin Bet, voiced his approval of Mughniyeh's assassination. He referred to Mughniyeh as "the Lebanese Carlos," drawing a comparison to the Venezuelan terrorist imprisoned in France. [10]
The US State Department stated that "the world is a better place" without Imad Mughniyeh. Meanwhile, the White House spokesperson Sean McCormack described Mughniyeh as a "cold-blooded killer." [4]
Hezbollah announced that Mughniyeh's funeral will be held on February 14, which also marks the third anniversary of Rafik Hariri's assassination.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. Its armed strength was assessed to be equivalent to that of a medium-sized army in 2016.
The Islamic Jihad Organization was a Lebanese Shia militia known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War.
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, also known by his nom de guerre al-Hajj Radwan, was a Lebanese militant leader who was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership. Information about Mughniyeh is limited, but he is believed to have been Hezbollah's chief of staff and understood to have overseen Hezbollah's military, intelligence, and security apparatuses. He was one of the main founders of Hezbollah in the 1980s, and was described as a skilled military tactician and highly elusive figure. He was often referred to as an ‘untraceable ghost’.
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The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. It marked the third Israeli invasion into Lebanon since 1978.
Samir Kuntar was a Lebanese Druze member of the Palestine Liberation Front. In 1979, he took part in the Nahariya attack in Israel, for which an Israeli court would convict him of murder and terrorism. Kantar denied the accusations and maintained his innocence. He was eventually released as part of the 2008 Israel–Hezbollah prisoner exchange.
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The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, popularly known as Mossad, is the national intelligence agency of the State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman and Shin Bet.
Kafar Souseh is a municipality and neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, located in the southwestern part of the capital. It is home to the Syrian Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.
Mustafa Badreddine was a Lebanese militant leader and both the cousin and brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyeh. He was nicknamed Dhu al-Fiqar referring to the legendary sword of Ali. His death was seen as one of the biggest blows in the Hezbollah leadership.
The Iran–Israel proxy conflict, also known as the Iran–Israel proxy war or Iran–Israel Cold War, is an ongoing proxy conflict between Iran and Israel. In the Israeli–Lebanese conflict, Iran has supported Lebanese Shia militias, most notably Hezbollah. In the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iran has backed Palestinian groups such as Hamas. Israel has supported Iranian rebels, such as the People's Mujahedin of Iran, conducted airstrikes against Iranian allies in Syria and assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists. In 2018 Israeli forces directly attacked Iranian forces in Syria.
The May 2013 Rif Dimashq airstrikes were a series of aerial attacks made on targets in Syria on 3 and 5 May 2013. The 3 May attack was on targets at Damascus International Airport. The 5 May attacks were on targets at Jamraya, and the Al-Dimas and Maysalun areas in Rif Dimashq. Although officially Israel neither confirmed nor denied its involvement, former Mossad director Danny Yatom and former government member Tzachi Hanegbi inferred Israel's involvement in the attack. Official Syrian sources denied any attack on its soil on 3 May, but did accuse Israel for the attacks on 5 May.
Events in the year 2015 in Israel.
The January 2015 Mazraat Amal incident was an airstrike against a two-car convoy that killed six Hezbollah fighters, including two prominent commanders, and a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, at al-Amal Farms in the Quneitra District of Syria, in the Eastern Golan Heights, on 18 January 2015, during the Syrian Civil War. The attack was largely attributed to Israel, which did not officially confirm that it carried it out. Hezbollah and IRGC held Israel responsible and threatened to retaliate. On 19 January 2015, Al-Nusra Front member Abu Azzam al-Idlibi claimed that Jihad Mughniyeh and the other Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Al-Nusra Front ambush at Jaroud in the Qalamoun Mountains in the Al-Qutayfah District northeast of Damascus, claiming that it "will be the end of the Persian project, God willing."
Jihad Mughniyah was a Lebanese politician and prominent member of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, and the son of Imad Mughniyeh. He was killed in 2015 in the Mazraat Amal incident, an airstrike attributed to Israel.
On 18 February, an airstrike, suspected to have been carried out by the Israeli Air Force, targeted sites in the Damascus Governorate, including a residential building. Fifteen people were killed, and another fifteen were injured.