Outside the Beltway

Hezbollah Leader Imad Mughniyeh Killed

James Joyner · Wednesday, February 13, 2008 · 2 comments

Imad Mughniyeh, the man behind the the 1983 attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut and the TWA Flight 847 hijacking, has been killed.

A senior Hezbollah commander suspected in some of the highest-profile international terrorist attacks of the last 25 years has died in an explosion in Syria, Hezbollah TV said Wednesday.

Imad Mughniyeh died Tuesday in an explosion in a residential section of the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to Hezbollah’s television station, Al-Manar.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for Mughniyeh’s death, but Israeli officials denied they were involved. “Israel rejects the attempt by terror groups to attribute to it any involvement in this incident,” an Israeli government spokesman said.

Western intelligence agencies long suspected Mughniyeh in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 63 people, according to a 2001 CNN report. He also was suspected in the truck bombing that year of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, an attack that killed 241 people and preceded the U.S. military withdrawal from Lebanon.

The FBI listed Hezbollah’s Mughniyeh as one of its Most Wanted Terrorists, blaming him for his role in the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, which gripped the attention of TV viewers in the United States and around the world for more than two weeks.

Hurray!

Practically speaking, this will have little impact. There’s always another guy and his “greatest hits” were during the Reagan administration. Still, it’s good to see him go. And it’s good to have these bastards looking over their shoulder wondering if they’re next.