In the aftermath of the assassination of Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mugniyah, in Syria, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has declared “open war” on Israel. 

Mugniyah, alleged to have been behind some of the deadliest attacks against Western and Israeli targets around the world, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus on February 13, 2008.

Although no one has claimed responsibility for killing Mugniyah, Hezbollah, as well as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), have accused Israel of masterminding the assassination.

During Mugniyah’s funeral in Beirut on February 14, Nasrallah threatened to attack Israeli targets abroad and warned Israel that the assassination will result in the “disappearance of the Jewish state.”  Nasrallah also said:

• “Today Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance are ready to confront any Israeli aggression in Lebanon...You killed outside the battleground. Our battle was inside the Lebanese territory. You crossed the borders. Zionists, if you wanted open war, let it be an open war anywhere.”
• “The July war is not over, it is ongoing and no ceasefire was ever declared.”
• “In every future war there won’t be one Imad [Mugniyah] or a few thousand fighters, but tens of thousand loyal fighters who are willing to die as martyrs.”
• “We will do all that takes to defend our country and people.”
• “Mugniyah’s blood will lead to the elimination of Israel. These words are not an emotional reaction.”

The PFLP echoed Hezbollah’s threats, saying “Imad Mughnieh was assassinated by the Zionist Mossad...The Zionist murderers and their agents should know that the resistance will respond by aiming its bullets and its explosives at the leaders of Zionist terrorism and their agents.”

Hamas urged its followers to “face up to this Zionist octopus whose crimes are now passing beyond the Palestinian territories to touch the Arab and Islamic world.”

Mugniyah, believed to have masterminded the kidnappings of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s, is also alleged to have been behind the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed more than 350; the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29; and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85.  Mugniyah, who was added to the FBI list of “most wanted terrorists” in 2001, was indicted by the U.S. for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA plane. The hijackers killed a U.S. Navy diver on board.