Attacks blamed on assassinated terror chief Mughniyeh

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Hizbullah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, killed in a Damascus car bomb blast, was accused by Israeli and Western intelligence in some of the deadliest terror attacks against US, Israeli and Jewish interests in the 1980s and early 90s, before disappearing from the public eye for the next 15 years until he was reportedly killed by a car bomb in Damascus. The following is a list of major attacks in which he is suspected of involvement.
  • April 1983: A suicide bomber rams a van packed with explosives into the US Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans.
  • October 1983: Suicide attackers carry out near simultaneous truck bombings against barracks of French and US peacekeeping forces in Beirut, killing 241 American Marines and 58 French paratroopers.
  • March 1984: Lt. Col. William F. Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, is kidnapped and eventually killed in the beginning of a spate of kidnappings of foreigners linked to Hizbullah.
  • March 1985: Associated Press chief Mideast correspondent Terry Anderson is kidnapped and then held for the next six years.
  • June 1985: Lebanese Shiite militants hijack TWA flight 847 heading from Athens to Rome, flying it back and forth between Beirut and Algiers. At Beirut's airport, the hijackers shoot US Navy diver Robert Stetham, a passenger on the plane, and dump his body on the runway. Most of the 150 passengers were released over the course of the three day hijacking, with the remainder freed about two weeks later. The United States indicted Mughniyeh for his role in the hijacking, and he was put on FBI's most wanted list with a $5 million bounty on his head.
  • March 1992: A pickup truck packed with explosives smashes into the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people.
  • July 1994: A van packed with explosives levels a seven-story Jewish center in Buenos Aires, killing 95 people. Argentina issued an arrest warrant for Mughniyeh in 1999.