By DPA
Beirut/Damascus : A high-ranking leader of Lebanon’s militant movement Hezbollah was killed in a car bomb blast in an upmarket area in Syrian capital Damascus overnight, the group confirmed Wednesday.
Imad Fayez Mugniyah, who was said to be close to Iran, was killed in a blast that targeted his car, which was parked in a street at a square in central Damascas near an Iranian school, Hezbollah sources said.
Hezbollah television accused Israel of the blast that killed “our great leader.”
Mugniyah was a senior member of Hezbollah and was alternatively described as the head of its security section, a senior intelligence official and as a founder of the organisation.
The blast occurred at 10.30 p.m. Tuesday in the district that houses offices of the Syrian intelligence services.
It comes ahead of the arrival of Iranian foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, to Damascus, where he was expected to meet Syrian officials as well as members of Hezbollah – one of Iran’s main allies in the region.
Syria gives sanctuary to senior members of radical Palestinian and Arab groups.
Terror attacks in Syria are rare as the country’s security and intelligence bodies tighten the noose on all forms of opposition. A 2006 attack on the US embassy in Damascus came as a shock to many Syrians.
Mugniyah is described as the head of its security section, a senior intelligence official and as a founder of the organization.
Sometimes referred to as a “master terrorist,” Mugniyah has been implicated in the 1983 bombings of the US Embassy, the US Marine and French peacekeeping barracks, in which over 350 people were killed.
He was believed to be the mastermind of the 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the kidnapping of dozens of foreigners in Lebanon in the 1980s.
Mugniyah was born in Tayr Dibba, a poor village in southern Lebanon. CIA South Group records state that he lived in Ayn Al-Dilbah, a ghetto of south Beirut.