Washington Post: Imad Mughniyeh Was Killed with the Plan of Mossad and CIA

On the eve of the seventh anniversary of Imad Mughniyeh's assassination, the chief military planner of Hezbollah, the Washington Post reported that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) fully collaborated with Israel's Mossad in designing and executing this assassination. Imad Mughniyeh, who was equivalent to the Chief of Staff of the Army for Hezbollah, was killed on February 12, 2007, in a massive explosion in Damascus. Hours before the explosion, he attended a celebration at the Iranian embassy alongside the Iranian ambassador and senior Syrian officials to commemorate the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. He then briefly visited one of his wives living in Syria and, upon leaving, got into a rented vehicle. His SUV had just reached 'Kafr Sousse' and Al-Hadaiq Street, near a school managed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, when the explosion shattered the tranquility of the early moments of February 12 in Damascus. During those years, Syria was completely silent, and the country's intelligence and security organization held significant power, with Bashar al-Assad and his family at the height of their power, before the Syrian civil war had begun. Mughniyeh's assassination initially drew attention to Israel, as it was a year before Hezbollah planned an attack on northern Israel, killing eight soldiers and abducting two others, which led to a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah that resulted in over two thousand Lebanese casualties and massive destruction in Lebanon. That war had disrupted the equations, and from the first day of that conflict, Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, has lived in hiding. Hezbollah and Iran immediately pointed fingers at Israel after Mughniyeh's assassination. Israel considered Mughniyeh responsible for designing and executing the deadly bombing at a Jewish building in Argentina in 1984 in Buenos Aires and numerous other operations against Israel. However, Mughniyeh was also at the top of the list of individuals wanted by the United States due to his involvement in the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, which killed hundreds of American servicemen, as well as Hezbollah's planning and other terrorist operations against the West. The FBI confidently asserted that Mughniyeh's involvement in the planning of the bombing of an American airplane in 1985 had been established. The FBI had set a five million dollar reward for information leading to his capture. At that time, the CIA also announced that anyone with information leading to Mughniyeh's arrest would receive a 25 million dollar reward from the United States. The European Union also had him on its list of wanted terrorists. 'The explosive spare tire in Mughniyeh's vehicle was detonated remotely from Tel Aviv.' Now, the Washington Post has reported that Mossad and the CIA collaborated fully to kill Mughniyeh, and CIA operatives needed to convince President George W. Bush that Mughniyeh truly remained a significant terrorist threat to U.S. interests in the region and the world to obtain authorization. The Washington Post noted some significant details in the execution of this assassination, including that the spare tire in Imad Mughniyeh's vehicle was coated with a special explosive material. The newspaper states that the explosive spare tire was tested in North Carolina, and when a similar tire was placed in Mughniyeh's vehicle, Mossad's technical forces in Tel Aviv detonated it remotely; the distance from Tel Aviv to Damascus is 215 kilometers. The CIA and Mossad have not responded to this Washington Post report, as they typically prefer silence in the face of such news. The Washington Post did not mention how the explosive spare tire was placed in Mughniyeh's vehicle. However, reports at the time suggested that individuals, including one or two women associated with Mughniyeh, had 'rented' this brand new silver Mitsubishi Pajero SUV for his trip. Meanwhile, at that time, Mughniyeh's first wife accused Syria of her husband's murder, stating that the fact that Bashar al-Assad and his intelligence services did not allow Iranian intelligence to investigate the reasons for this assassination 'indicates that Syria is involved in this murder.' Lebanese figure Walid Jumblatt also accused Syria of this murder due to ongoing conflicts with Mughniyeh. Syrian figure Abdul Halim Khaddam, who was the right-hand man of Hafez al-Assad for twenty years but fled the country, later told European media that 'only Iranian forces, senior Hezbollah elements, and Syrian intelligence officials could have provided precise information about Mughniyeh's presence to the organizers of his assassination.' Possible role of Shurba in Mughniyeh's assassination? However, the Washington Post did not mention the possible role of Mohammad Shurba in Mughniyeh's killing. Hassan Nasrallah confirmed last month that this Hezbollah official had become an 'Israeli infiltrator.' Reports from Arab media and media aligned with Hezbollah in recent months indicated that Mohammad Shurba, the commander of Hezbollah's external branch and the commander of Hassan Nasrallah's protection forces, had been working for Mossad since the Hezbollah-Israel war. Hezbollah claims to have arrested Shurba, and he has 'confessed' to all his 'collaborations' with Mossad. Reports indicated that Shurba had been providing information about many planned operations by Hezbollah to strike Israelis and Jews worldwide, all of which, except for the bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria, in July 2012, were neutralized. However, Imad Mughniyeh, also known as Haj Rida, was not only connected to Iran through one of his Iranian wives. Many reports at the time indicated that Mughniyeh spent most of his time in Iran and was actively involved in the planning of the Quds Force of the IRGC, frequently seen at the IRGC's main headquarters and was the right-hand man of Qassem Soleimani, who has been the commander of the Quds Force since 1998. The Iranian wife and family of Imad Mughniyeh. The Washington Post's report on the details of the collaboration between Mossad and the CIA in Mughniyeh's assassination comes at a time when the killing of Jihad Mughniyeh has once again brought the Mughniyeh family into strong connections between Iran and Hezbollah. Jihad, the eldest son of Imad from his first Lebanese wife, is the brother of Mustafa Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah official, who is considered the main suspect by the international court for the murder of Rafik Hariri, the then Prime Minister of Lebanon. However, Lebanon has not surrendered Badreddine to this court, and he carries out a significant portion of the responsibilities inherited from Imad Mughniyeh. Images released last month by the Iranian state media also show that after Imad Mughniyeh's assassination, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, Qassem Soleimani, and other IRGC commanders held Jihad Mughniyeh, Imad Mughniyeh's son, in special respect and status. Imad named his son after his brother Jihad, who was killed in the war against Israel in the 1980s, and Fouad, another brother of Imad, was killed in an operation that Hezbollah attributed to Israeli espionage. Jihad Mughniyeh, the 26-year-old son of Imad Mughniyeh, was killed two weeks ago in an attack attributed to Israel, along with several other Hezbollah activists and IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Allahdadi. Hezbollah confirms that Jihad Mughniyeh, despite his youth, has been one of the senior commanders of Hezbollah for the past six years. Images released in recent days by the Al-Mayadeen network showed that Qassem Soleimani had arrived at the fresh grave of Jihad Mughniyeh and was praying for him. Before Jihad Mughniyeh's assassination, visiting Imad Mughniyeh's grave had become part of the protocol for official and unofficial Iranian officials' trips to Lebanon; Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister in Hassan Rouhani's government, was no exception, as he also laid a wreath at Mughniyeh's grave during his first official visit to Lebanon last year. In some Lebanese and Iranian rumors, it has always been said that Imad Mughniyeh's Iranian wife is the sister of Qassem Soleimani, but this rumor has never been confirmed.