Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
Here's some good news for a change. Hopefully, something like this will be the fate of Bin Laden one of these days.
A very BIG congrats and thanks to the folks who pulled it off. :thumbsup:
New York Times
February 14, 2008
Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
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 when a bomb detonated under the car he was in, Syrian officials said.
No one claimed credit for killing the man, 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 devastating 1983 bombings of the United States 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 plan the 1992 bombing of its embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed.
Although he had not been accused of planning new attacks in more than a decade, American officials referred to Mr. Mugniyah as the ??A team? of international terrorism because of his cold professionalism and success at evading capture.
Widely believed to have undergone plastic surgery to avoid detection, Mr. Mugniyah had not been seen in public for years and was thought to move between Iran, Syria, and Lebanon.
Before 2001, he had been involved in more terrorist attacks against Americans than any other individual, 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 an S.U.V. in an upscale Damascus neighborhood, killing its occupant and damaging 9 or 10 other cars.
Hezbollah did not say how or where Mr. Mugniyah was killed, but the Syrian state news agency confirmed Wednesday night that he was the man killed in the Damascus bombing, adding that Syria ??condemns this cowardly terrorist act and offers condolences to the martyr??s family and to the Lebanese people.?
Hezbollah??s Al Manar television station 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 parliamentarian and former chief of Israel??s 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. Last September, Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear site in the Syrian desert.
Syria normally maintains very tight control over security, especially in the capital. For that reason, there was also widespread speculation Wednesday that Syria might have cooperated in the bombing, possibly as part of a deal with Israel or the United States.
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 south 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 Wednesday afternoon, Al Manar showed black-clad guerrillas standing on either side of his coffin in a Hezbollah hall in a southern suburbs.
Hezbollah announced that Thursday would be a day of mourning in some parts of south Lebanon, and a mass funeral in the southern suburbs was scheduled for that day.
Even some political figures who are bitterly opposed to Hezbollah ?? such as Prime Minister Fouad Siniora ?? sent condolences on Wednesday.
Mr. Mugniyah??s funeral will coincide with an especially sensitive occasion in Lebanon: the third anniversary of the killing of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The Western-backed March 14 coalition, led by Mr. Hariri??s son Saad Hariri, 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. He was also accused of arranging shipments of arms from Iran to Palestinean groups. American officials say Mr. Mugniyah was behind the 1983 bombing of the Marine compound in Beirut, in which 241 troops 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 murder of William Buckley, the C.I.A. station chief in Beirut, in 1984; the kidnapping and murder of Lt. Col. William Richard Higgins of the Marines, who was on peacekeeping duty in Lebanon in 1988; and, 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 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 car, 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 sweetshop nearby and who arrived at the scene a few minutes after the explosion.
The Syrian police were removing a body from the car when he arrived, Mr. Nasaiseh said. Within an hour, the shattered car had been towed away. By Wednesday morning the scene had been cleared, and the only signs of the attack were a black mark on the ground and scarring marks on the sidewalk and nearby building facades.
James Risen contributed reporting from Washington, Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem, and Nawara Mahfound from in Damascus.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/wo...a95&ei=5087%0A
Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
Doesnt matter. Someone else just as bad or worse will take his place.
Happens all the time
Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
That reminds me of a couple of years ago, remember when they shot that turd in gaza with a fucking predator drone rocket and the only thing left was a turban in a wheelchair!!! That was fucking awesome, we need to do more shit like that, everyday, multiple times per day, for the next 100 years!:thumbsup:
Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
Quote:
Originally Posted by 8182KSKUSH
That reminds me of a couple of years ago, remember when they shot that turd in gaza with a fucking predator drone rocket and the only thing left was a turban in a wheelchair!!! That was fucking awesome, we need to do more shit like that, everyday, multiple times per day, for the next 100 years!:thumbsup:
Yeah, we don't even have the extra money to do that for the next 2 years.
Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
Killing = more killing. The only solution is peace. But nobody wants that becasue it will cut into profits
Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
Quote:
Originally Posted by zeitgeist
Killing = more killing. The only solution is peace. But nobody wants that becasue it will cut into profits
OK
America disbands it's military and refuses to kill anyone ever again.
Soldiers just use non-lethal devices to try to defend the country as well as all police and law enforcement, because we will not "kill" anymore.
Islamic Extremists, laugh their asses and then just kill us while we tell them how peaceful we are. They don't care, they just hate us. They will just shrug their shoulders, smile, and keep on decapitating all the hostages they get to take because no one can do anything to prevent them from taking hostages. You see since we can't kill, they just bring guns and shit and kill everyone without resistance.
That's a great "ideal" but that doesn't apply to reality.:jointsmile:
Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
Quote:
Originally Posted by Markass
Yeah, we don't even have the extra money to do that for the next 2 years.
Sure we do from all the oil and wealth that we stole from Iraq, from what I read anyway.:D
Top Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria Bombing
Quote:
Originally Posted by 8182KSKUSH
OK
America disbands it's military and refuses to kill anyone ever again.
Soldiers just use non-lethal devices to try to defend the country as well as all police and law enforcement, because we will not "kill" anymore.
Islamic Extremists, laugh their asses and then just kill us while we tell them how peaceful we are. They don't care, they just hate us. They will just shrug their shoulders, smile, and keep on decapitating all the hostages they get to take because no one can do anything to prevent them from taking hostages. You see since we can't kill, they just bring guns and shit and kill everyone without resistance.
That's a great "ideal" but that doesn't apply to reality.:jointsmile:
yeah u got a great point. But this war of attrition that we are doing isnt really isnt making anything better
