Hezbollah warlord was an enigma

Why would Syria want to get rid of Mughniyah? One theory is that the U.S. and Israel exerted pressure on Damascus. They had leverage: an international court's pending investigation of Syrian leaders in the killing of Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri in 2005. Assad's innermost circle may have decided to accept a hit on Mughniyah in exchange for protection from indictments and for improved relations with the West, officials and experts say.

A simpler theory: Mughniyah somehow crossed his Syrian patrons and paid for it.

"Syria is very pragmatic," said a diplomat in Damascus. "If you have to eliminate someone, you do it."

But other experts doubt that Syria sacrificed an ally of such stature. An Israeli airstrike on an alleged nuclear site last year suggests that the Israelis "operate on their own with great effectiveness inside Syria," a senior European anti-terrorism official said.

Israel does not confirm or deny having a role in the death. Iran and Hezbollah face a strategic dilemma, experts say. A rash move against Israel could bring foreign condemnation, even military action. And Iran must consider the potential effect on high-stakes talks over its nuclear program.

"Hezbollah can strike all over," an Israeli security official said. "But they need an Iranian Embassy for support. It has been more than 10 years since they did something like that. They will have to consider if they want to go back to that era. If they do it now, we will hit them hard."

In south Beirut, meanwhile, a shrine draws mourners at all hours. The enclosure resembles a large outdoor restaurant assembled with cheap materials from a garden or hardware shop. Plastic flowers decorate a tomb at the center of a plot of artificial grass that covers the graves of about 100 fighters, adorned with small glass cases holding photos and other mementos.

On a recent afternoon, a bare-headed woman in a hot-pink shirt entered and knelt at the tomb. She touched it gently, then got up and left the place where Mughniyah finally sleeps.

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daragahi@latimes.com

rotella@latimes.com

Special correspondents Ziad Haydar in Damascus and Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.

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Trail of terror

Imad Mughniyah allegedly was involved in some of the most infamous attacks of the late 20th century:

* Western security forces identified him as a planner of the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and of bases housing U.S. Marines and French paratroopers in Beirut, attacks that claimed 362 lives.

* He allegedly led high-profile kidnappings by the nascent Hezbollah, including the abduction, torture and slaying in 1985 of William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut.

* U.S. authorities indicted him on charges of having a hands-on role in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight during which a U.S. Navy diver was tortured and killed.

* Argentina accused him of masterminding the 1992 Israeli Embassy bombing, which killed 29 people, and the bombing two years later of a Jewish community center, which killed 85 people.

* Hezbollah influenced the adoption by Al Qaeda Iraqi and Palestinian militants of tactics such as synchronized car bombings and suicide attacks.

Source: Times reporting