CIA Played Crucial Role in 2008 Assassination of Hezbollah Leader
A new report reveals that the Central Intelligence Agency was instrumental in the assassination of a high-ranking member of Hezbollah in 2008.
The Washington Post reports that the CIA developed and tested the customized bomb used in the assassination and that a group of CIA operatives tracked the target and told Israeli intelligence when to detonate the explosive.
The assassination took place on Feb. 12, 2008 in Damascus, Syria and targeted Imad Mughinyah, who was the head of Hezbollah's international operations. He was killed by a tire bomb that was placed in the spare tire on the back of his sport utility vehicle. The Post says the bomb used to kill Mughinyah was tested at a CIA facility in North Carolina at least 25 times.
One of Mughinyah's sons, who had also joined Hezbollah, was recently killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria that also left an Iranian general dead.
Mughinyah was believed to be the man behind some of Hezbollah's most infamous attacks, such as the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The 1992 bombing is currently at the center of a scandal in Argentina that saw a prosecutor accuse the Argentine president of trying to hide the role of Iran, which backs Hezbollah, in the attack. The prosecutor was found dead just hours before he was due to testify to the Argentine congress about his findings.
The Post reports that US involvement in the killing may be a breach of international law. This is because international law outlaws killing by "perfidy," which is to say sneaky or underhanded ways, such as car bombings or poisonings. The killing also poses legal issues because it took place in a country the United States was not at war with.
