DAMASCUS, SYRIA — The assassination here of a senior Hezbollah militia leader, wanted by the U.S. in attacks over two decades, including the 1983 bombing that killed 241 American troops in Beirut, is likely to further aggravate tensions in Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East.
Hezbollah quickly accused Israel of plotting the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, 45, who they said died late Tuesday in a car bomb attack. Israel denied involvement, but the killing could have violent repercussions in Lebanon, where domestic political turmoil and Hezbollah's cross-border hostilities with the Jewish state have inflamed the region for years.
The death was a blow to Hezbollah's military wing, and Lebanon and Israel braced for a response from the Shiite militant group. The attack also raised questions about whether Syria might have carried out the killing to improve its relations with the West, or whether its sprawling intelligence network had been penetrated by outside plotters.
A mercurial figure occasionally seen in grainy black-and-white photographs, Mughniyah purportedly led Islamic Jihad during Lebanon's civil war in the 1980s. He had close ties to Iran and was indicted in the United States in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner that resulted in the slaying of a U.S. Navy diver who was a passenger. He was suspected of having a role in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and barracks housing Marines and French peacekeepers in Beirut that killed about 350 people.
A master at concealing his identity, Mughniyah was believed to be one of the key security officials supervising Hezbollah's war against Israeli troops in the summer of 2006.
That conflict emboldened Hezbollah and patron Iran and further destabilized Lebanon. It also led to questions about whether Syria would continue meddling in Lebanese politics as it quietly attempted to ease its bellicose stand with Washington.
"The guy is a legend," said a ranking official in one Palestinian militant group with offices in Damascus, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He has been in hiding for at least 20 years. He has changed his appearance three times by having plastic surgery. Every time we met, he had to reintroduce himself to me."
Syria condemned the assassination, with Interior Minister Bassam Abdel Majeed reading a statement saying that "the investigation is underway to find the perpetrators." Syrian officials said Mughniyah, also known by the nom de guerre Haj Radwan, spent most of his time in Tehran.
