US officials have confirmed the CIA helped plan the car bomb killing of Imad Mughniyeh, pictured right, in 2008. Photo / AP
The timing of media reports confirming the involvement of the CIA and Mossad in a plot to assassinate Hizbollah's second-in-command Imad Mughniyeh in 2008 are likely to have a greater impact than the revelations themselves, Lebanese analysts said.
"Hizbollah has always been aware that the CIA does also engage in
monitoring, surveillance and assassinations," Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a Lebanese analyst seen as close to Hizbollah, said.
At least five US intelligence officials last weekend confirmed the details of a meticulously planned plot in 2008 to assassinate Mughniyeh, believed to be behind several high profile attacks including the US Embassy bombings in 1983. Previously it was believed that just Israel was behind the attack.
Details, revealed in both the Washington Post and Newsweek, included the fact that the bomb, which was planted in a spare tyre at the back of Mughniyeh's car, was tested 25 times, partly to ensure there was no collateral damage. CIA operatives provided intelligence, but the bomb was triggered remotely by Tel Aviv. "The way it was set up, the US could object and call it off, but it could not execute," a US intelligence official was quoted as saying in the Washington Post report.
The details have coincided with increased Hizbollah activity, Saad-Ghorayeb said. Hizbollah retaliated last week to an apparent Israeli attack which killed six members of Hizbollah, with a missile strike which killed two soldiers.
