Mughniyeh's Assasination

02-14-2008

One day after the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the Middle East is abuzz. Who did it? What impact will this have on Hezbollah? Iran? Syria? Doesn't this show a serious security breach for Syria's security services? After all, Mughniyeh assassination took place in the heart of Syria's capital Damascus.

It's certain his death represents a major blow to the Islamic terror network of the Middle East. Some of the most gruesome terror attacks of this generation are attributed to Mughniyeh like the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. One newspaper called him "A One Man Axis of Evil."

His assassination will likely remain a mystery, but many suspect Israel's Mossad secret service was behind the assassination.

It strikes a huge blow against Hezbollah, Iran and Syria. It hurts Iran since Mughniyah acted as its liaison between Tehran and Hezbollah. Hezbollah loses its chief "operations officer" and its top terrorist trainer. Hamas also loses since he helped trained many of their terrorists. Some analysts think Mughniyah's assassination is as significant as or more so than targeting Osama Bin Laden.

For instance, Boaz Ganor, the Executive Director of the Institute of Counter Terrorism stated, "There is good reason the FBI set a $5 million dollar price on his head, and that some in the American intelligence community have described Mughniyeh as an even more dangerous enemy than Osama bin Laden himself."

He also stated, "Mughniyeh's importance lies not only in his ability to execute extraordinary attacks against targets around the world - or even in his control of Hizbullah's operational branch in Lebanon - but more significantly in the close connections he established between Iran, Syria and Hizbullah. Mughniyeh positioned himself as the operational link between these actors."

While a major actor in the Middle East might now be gone from the scene, the war with Islamic terror will go on. Because of that, Israeli embassies around the world are on high alert because of possible revenge attacks.

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