Imad Fayez Mughniyah (7 December 1962-12 February 2008) was a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) and Hezbollah, two major Shia terrorist groups in the Middle East. He was responsible for the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings and the 1983 United States embassy bombing, both in 1983, and he was assassinated by Israel in 2008.
Biography[]
Mughniyah in the cockpit of TWA Flight 847
Mughniyah was born in Lebanon in 1962, and he was a Shi'ite Muslim. In the 1980s, he was one of the founders of the anti-Israel Hezbollah movement as well as the Islamic Jihad Organization, both of which advocated holy war against the West and the Jews. Mughniyah became a senior leader of the IJO, which was essentially Hezbollah's nom de guerre for operations in the Middle East ("Islamic Resistance" was its name for foreign operations). Mughniyah was inspired by the Iranian Revolution and anti-imperialism, and he would receive funding from Iran during his war against the United States and Israel.
IJO leader[]
Mughniyah pointing a gun at Testrake while on the news
In 1983, Mughniyah took part in the bombings of a Lebanese Army barracks and a US embassy in Beirut, and kidnapped dozens of foreigners in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War in the whole of the 1980s. In 1985, Mughniyah was one of the hijackers of TWA Flight 847, and he was featured in an iconic photo that showed him holding the mouth of Captain John Testrake as the Hezbollah hijackers spoke to the media. His group claimed responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing to coincide with the Christian Christmas holiday, and in 1992 Argentina indicted him for his involvement in the 1992 attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires of the Israeli embassy. Prior to 2001, he had killed more citizens of the United States than any other militant. He became a target of the US and Israeli governments for his involvement in numerous terrorist attacks, and the Israelis decided to assassinate him in 2008.
Death[]
Mughniyah's death
In 2008, Mughniyah traveled to Kafr Sousa in the Syrian capital city of Damascus, where he attended the 29th Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution party held by Iranian ambassador Hojatoleslam Ahmad Musavi. At 10:30 PM Mughniyah left the party and headed to his Mitsubishi Pajero, whose spare tire had been replaced by one with a high explosive. The bomb was detonated by remote, killing Mughniyah and destroying the car without damaging nearby buildings. Israel's Mossad and "several Arab countries" were behind the assassination, and Syria, Lebanon, Italy, Kuwait, Jordan, and some Israeli sources condemned the assassination. However, the United States' Bush Administration said that the world was a better place without him in it.