The Wall Street Journal-20080214-Hezbollah Leader Is Killed in Syria- Group Blames Israel For Carrying Out Attack- Frayed Nerves in Lebanon-

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Hezbollah Leader Is Killed in Syria; Group Blames Israel For Carrying Out Attack; Frayed Nerves in Lebanon?

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The accused mastermind behind most of Hezbollah's deadliest terrorist attacks over the last 25 years was killed in an apparent bombing in Syria, which his organization blamed on Israel.

Imad Mughniyeh, a shadowy figure who was among the world's most- wanted men, was accused of involvement in the 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight and the 1994 suicide bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires.

His death delivered a blow to Hezbollah, according to analysts in Lebanon, Israel and the U.S., including current and former intelligence officials. It also threatened to further heighten tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, who fought a war in the summer of 2006 to what many considered a stalemate.

The affair might also further fray political nerves inside Lebanon, where Hezbollah is in a political standoff with its rivals. Yesterday, President Bush announced new sanctions targeting Syrian President Bashar Assad's government for its alleged role in supporting extremism inside Lebanon and Iraq.

"I'm more worried about Hezbollah today than I was yesterday," one U.S. counterterrorism official said of the potential for reprisals. For their part, Hezbollah leaders seemed to promise blood for blood.

Mr. Mughniyeh's funeral was scheduled for today, which is the three- year anniversary of the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister whose son now leads the largest domestic bloc opposed to Hezbollah.

In a statement yesterday, Hezbollah confirmed Mr. Mughniyeh's death, although it didn't cite the location or means of his apparent assassination. Arab news reports said he died when the car he was traveling in exploded late Tuesday night or early yesterday morning in Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Israel didn't appear to directly deny responsibility. Instead, the spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert read a carefully worded statement in which he said his government rejected being linked by Hezbollah to the operation. "Israel rejects the attempts by terrorist elements to attribute to it any involvement whatsoever in this affair," Mark Regev said.

Mr. Regev declined to comment further. Israel has long wielded assassination of accused terrorists as a tool of state policy. It was last accused of assassinating a terrorist inside Syria in 2004.

But Israel may not have been alone in wanting to see Mr. Mughniyeh dead. He was wanted by more than three dozen countries, including the U.S., which held him high on its most-wanted list and offered as much as $5 million for information leading to his capture. "The world is a better place without this man in it," said Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman in Washington.

The Bush administration reintroduced assassination to U.S. policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Senior U.S. counterterrorism officials refused to either confirm or deny an American role in Mr. Mughniyeh's death. But they hailed it as a major step forward in the fight against terrorist groups.

Before the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, no terrorist group had come close to killing more Americans than Hezbollah. And Mr. Mughniyeh was accused of involvement in every one of its major operations of the past quarter-century.

Israeli officials said he likely planned the July 12, 2006, cross- border raid that sparked the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. They said he also built the military infrastructure in southern Lebanon that allowed Hezbollah to withstand the Israeli assault that followed.

Yossi Kuperwasser, who retired in 2006 as the chief of analysis for Israeli military intelligence, said Mr. Mughniyeh's deadly skills were unmatched.

"He had an innovative mind, always working out of the box, coming up with new ideas," said Mr. Kuperwasser, who is a retired brigadier general. "He was very creative, very thorough, and he was a wicked man, which made him very dangerous."

Mr. Kuperwasser and others, including current U.S. intelligence officials, also said the Hezbollah leader served as a vital emissary between his group and Iran, as well as Hezbollah and Syria. He also maintained significant contact with Palestinian terrorist groups and allegedly oversaw training for some Shiite militiamen fighting U.S. forces in Iraq. "There are a lot of things that only he knew," said Mr. Kuperwasser.

Hilal Khashan, a Lebanese political analyst and professor at the American University of Beirut, said Mr. Mughniyeh was more important than the group's better-known, spiritual leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

"Imad Mughniyeh was the key military player" during the 2006 war with Israel, Mr. Khashan said, adding, "Hezbollah is now facing a difficult position. There is no choice for Hezbollah but to respond to this assassination."

Eyal Zisser, an Israeli analyst who teaches at Tel Aviv University, said the only question about Hezbollah's response was whether it would start firing rockets soon into northern Israel or wait to launch a major terrorist operation.

The Buenos Aires attack, along with the bombing of the Israeli Embassy there, were in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Sayyed Abbas Moussawi.

Hezbollah yesterday reminded its followers of Mr. Moussawi's death, and its response.

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Jay Solomon in Washington contributed to this article.