US welcomes terror chief's death

The death of one of the world’s most wanted terrorists in a car bombing in Syria has been welcomed by the United States.

One-time Hezbollah security chief Imad Mughniyeh was the suspected mastermind of attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its top ally, Iran, blamed Israel for the assassination in Damascus.

Israel denied any involvement, but officials made no effort to conceal their approval of his death.

Mughniyeh was also on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists, and the US State Department had offered a $5m (€3.4m) reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

He was indicted in the US for his role in planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a US Navy diver was killed.

The United States welcomed Mughniyeh’s death.

“The world is a better place without this man in it,” US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. “One way or the other, he was brought to justice.”

“From Beirut to Dhahran, he orchestrated bombings, kidnappings and hijackings in which hundreds of American service members were killed,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a statement.

“Hopefully, his demise will bring some measure of comfort to the families of all those military men he murdered.”

The hijacking was the only attack on Americans for which Mughniyeh was charged, but he carried out or directed a series of terrorist spectaculars aimed at the United States and Jewish targets.

One Western official said yesterday that Mughniyeh was linked to the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers near Dhahran in Saudi Arabia, an attack which killed 19 Americans.