Imad Mughniyah - Biography

Biography

Mughniyah was born in Tayr Dibba to a family of poor farmers who harvested olives and lemons in the orchards of Lebanon's southern Shi'a heartland. CIA South Group records state that Mughniyah lived in Ayn Al-Dilbah, a slum in South Beirut.

Mughniyeh is described as having been a popular boy and a "natural entertainer" who cracked jokes at family weddings and "worked the crowd with a confidence unusual for a youth his age."

Mughniyah became active in the Palestinian Fatah movement at an early age. He was discovered by fellow Lebanese Ali Abu Hassan Deeb (who would later become a leader in Hizbullah) and quickly rose through the ranks of the movement. In the mid-1970s, Mugniyah organized the "Student Brigade," a unit of 100 young men which became part of Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17. Mughniyah temporarily left Fatah in 1981 due to differences of opinion on the regime of Saddam Hussein. Mughniyah was a Shiite and deeply religious and was upset by the murder of the Iraqi Grand Ayatullah Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr in 1980 as well as a previous attempt by the Iraqi intelligence on the life of Lebanese Ayatullah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah.

Fatah was formally in alliance the Lebanese National Movement, which included the Lebanese pro-Iraqi branch of the Ba’th party. Mughniyah and some of his Lebanese Shiite comrades were forced to leave Fatah after engaging in armed confrontations with Ba’th party activists. They had previously organized a body guard unit for Ayatullah Fadlallah and other Shiite clerics in Lebanon. Mughniyah accompanied Ayatullah Fadlallah on a Hajj pilgrimage in 1980 and thus earned his Hajj title.

Mughniyeh was a student in the engineering department at the American University of Beirut in 1981 when the United States gave the "green light" for Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon in pursuit of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 Mughniyah was in Iran but hurried back to Beirut where he rejoined Fatah and participated in the defence of West Beirut and was wounded in the fighting. After the withdrawal of PLO forces from Beirut in September 1982 Mughniyah acquired an important position in the nascent resistance to the Israeli occupation due to his knowledge of arms cashes left behind by the Palestinians. He remained a Fatah member during this period but also worked with other factions, such as the leftist Lebanese National Movement and Islamic resistance groups. Mughniyah remained a member of Fatah until 1984 when he joined the newly created Islamic Resistance of the Hezbullah. He remained however close to Fatah leader Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) until the latter’s death in 1988. He also remained deeply committed to the Palestine cause throughout his life and apparently founded a secret "Committee for Elimination of Israel" (لجنة لإزالة إسرائيل) inside the Hizbullah in 2000. In later years, and especially after the Oslo accords, Mughniyah and the Hizbullah sided with the more militant Palestinian factions such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

Mughniyah worked as the bodyguard for Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a spiritual mentor to many in Lebanon's Shi'a community whose political consciousness was on the rise. Fadlallah held no formal political role, "opposed violence and sectarian division, and defied growing Iranian influence in Lebanon."

In 1983, Mughniyah married to his cousin Saada Badr Al Din who is the sister of Mustafa Badr Al Din. Mughniyah had two children from this marriage: Fatima Mugniyah (born August 1984) and Mustafa Mugniyah (born January 1987). In September 1991, Mugniyah’s wife and children were sent to Tehran for security reasons.