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Mughniyeh Mourned

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Written by News Editor

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Anger swept the hometown of top Hizbullah security official Imad Mughniyeh killed in a car bombing in Syria blamed on Israel, as residents mourned their elusive "legend" on Wednesday. A coffin holding Mughniyeh's body was placed on a podium in Hizbullah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, where the Shiite militant group planned a memorial service for the "martyr" on Thursday. It was not clear, however, where Mughniyeh, who was killed on Tuesday in Damascus, would be buried. "He was a legend. We always heard of his victories against Israel although we never knew him personally," said Ahmad, a 22-year-old man as he climbed an electricity pole to erect a black flag. "Today each one of us has become an Imad Mughniyeh," against Israel, he said. For more than 20 years Mughniyeh eluded Western and Israeli intelligence services who considered him a top criminal responsible for a spate of bloody attacks from Beirut to Buenos Aires. "We were shocked to learn that he was killed in Syria. We thought he was safe there," Mughniyeh's 51-year-old aunt Fayza told AFP as she stood outside the abandoned family home near the village cemetery. "He left the village a long time ago, shuttling between Syria and Iran, and for years I did not see him. But two years ago he snuck in after his mother passed away to pay his respects," she said. According to several reports, Mughniyeh eluded his detractors by undergoing plastic surgery to alter his features. "We heard he underwent plastic surgery because the intelligence services of the whole world were after him," said Ahmad. Not a single picture of Mughniyeh could be seen in Tair Debba, although the village was decked with portraits of his two brothers Fouad and Jihad, who were also killed in car bombings blamed on Israel. Black flags and the yellow banners of Hizbullah fluttered in the village, which resounded with verses of the Quran, Islam's holy book. A somber mood also gripped the Ruweiss district of Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hizbullah leaders gathered under heavy security to receive condolences and pay tribute to Mughniyeh. Hizbullah deputy chief Naim Qassem and Mughniyeh's father shook hands with mourners in a building that houses a mosque and a cultural center, where banners praised Mughniyeh. The Shiite militant group has blamed Israel for Mughniyeh's murder and described him as a "great resistance leader... assassinated by 'Israeli' criminal hands." "The martyr, may his soul rest in peace, had been a target for the Zionists for more than 20 years," and has joined the "divine legion of honor" of fighters who died confronting Israel, a statement said. Hizbullah al-Nur radio hailed him as "a knight crowned by victories" and said: "It is time you rested." Mughniyeh's name first emerged after a string of abductions and murders targeting Westerners in Lebanon during the 1975-1990 civil war. The United States has an up to five-million-bounty on his head in connection with the 1985 hijacking of a TWA passenger flight in Beirut, during which a navy diver was killed. He was also linked with the abduction and murder in Beirut of CIA operative William Buckley during the civil war, as well as the 1983 bombing of U.S. marine barracks at Beirut airport where 241 American servicemen were killed. Mughniyeh was also wanted for the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people and an attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina where 85 people were killed and almost 300 wounded.(AFP)

 

 

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