So who is Imad Mughniyeh? He was the man behind the 1983 bombings of the US Embassy and the Marine barracks in 1983 that killed more than 300. He was also the mastermind behind a 1985 TWA hijacking and numerous attacks and kidnappings against Americans and Israelis.

The bounty on his head was $25 million — the same as the bounty on Osama bin Laden. From The Times:

Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah mastermind behind the kidnapping of Westerners in Beirut and many big terror attacks around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed late last night in a car bomb explosion in Damascus.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred in the Syrian capital’s smart Kfar Soussa district, although Hezbollah blamed Israeli agents.

I blowed up real good

His death is a huge blow to the Iranian-backed militant group, given Mughniyeh’s years of experience and organisational skills.

He was commander of Hezbollah’s military wing, which he helped to build up into the formidable machine that fought the Israeli Army to a standstill in the war of summer 2006.

“With all due pride, we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon joining the martyrs … The brother commander hajj Imad Mughniyeh became a martyr at the hands of the Zionist Israelis,” said a statement carried by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel. The station broke off normal programming to broadcast verses from the Koran.

Yep, he blowed up real good

…

Rumours covered for the absence of hard facts about Mughniyeh. He was supposed to have had facial surgery twice to disguise his features. He moved his family to the Iranian capital at the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 and regularly travelled between Tehran, Beirut and Damascus, allegedly using an Iranian diplomatic passport.

In the mid 1990s, the Israelis recruited a former Sunni militiaman to kill Mughniyeh in Beirut with a bomb. The assassin killed Mughniyeh’s brother, Fuad, instead. His funeral is thought to be the most recent occasion that Imad appeared in public.

Positively his final appearance, however, will take place tomorrow afternoon in southern Beirut where Hezbollah is planning a large funeral procession.

Israel has denied involvement. In other news, Antarctica is experiencing cold weather.

Israel owns Syria, and Syria knows it.