Hizbullah appoints successor to assassinated commander

Source: Reuters, 15-02-2008
BEIRUT- Lebanon's Hizbullah has appointed a successor to its senior commander Imad Moghnieh who was assassinated in Syria this week, a Lebanese security source said on Friday.
The source said the appointment was made hours after the announcement of Moghnieh's death in a car bomb in Damascus on Tuesday. He did not identify the successor who would now command Hizbullah's formidable and well-armed guerrilla army.
Hizbullah has accused "Israel" of killing Moghnieh, who was among the United States' most wanted men. The "Israeli" government has denied any links, though its Mossad spy service had been hunting him for two decades.
"A successor to Imad Moghnieh has been appointed, which is natural," said the source, who requested anonymity. "That's how Hizbullah works, they move quickly to choose successors of fallen leaders."
The source said the successor was not one of the two names being circulated in the "Israeli" media. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has threatened "Israel" with "open war" in retaliation for the killing.
Moghnieh had been in charge of Hizbullah's security organ. He gained legendary status in Hizbullah for a string of attacks on "Israeli" targets in Lebanon in the 1980s.
An Iranian Arabic television station released mobile phone footage of the scene minutes after the blast that killed Moghnieh, chief of the forces of a group that fought a 34-day war against "Israel" in 2006.
It showed the car on fire and people running past it.
The source said the investigation showed Moghnieh was killed by a car bomb parked close to his car. It was detonated remotely as he walked past after leaving a building he had been visiting.