LEBANON: Mughniyah’s shadow over Israel

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Hours after the shooting of two Israeli policemen on Sunday near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, an obscure militant organization called Martyr Imad Mugniyah’s Group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Speculation runs high about this group. Is this just a small group of zealous Palestinians trying to win prestige by associating itself with the enigmatic military commander of Hezbollah killed in a bomb attack in Damascus last February? Is Hezbollah seeking revenge for his killing?

The Lebanese Shiite militant group has accused Israel of assassinating Mughniyah, who was sought by several secret service agencies for his alleged involvement in infamous attacks in various parts of the globe in the 1980s and 1990s.

Hezbollah repeatedly vowed to avenge the killing of Mughniyah.

Israeli media regularly reports that the Jewish state stepped up security to protect its citizens and assets around the world for fear of retribution by Hezbollah.

But it is unlikely that the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant group would go after a low-key operation such as the shooting of the two policemen.

Hezbollah officials boast that they always openly proclaim responsibility for their actions.

In an interview with the Lebanese news website Now Lebanon, an unnamed Hezbollah official refused to comment on the incident by either confirming or denying the Lebanese group’s implication in Sunday’s attack.

The official told the news site,“Everyone knows that when Hezbollah carries out an operation, it announces its responsibility and adopts it on time in an official statement issued by the party’s media office.”

Maybe ambiguity is what Hezbollah is really after: to keep Israel on its toes for a possible attack without fulfilling its promise of retaliation so as not to give Israel an excuse to wage a war against Lebanon.

A repeated claim of responsibility came early Monday when an anonymous caller reportedly told the French news agency AFP that the Mughniyah group he was representing had carried out the shooting.

Not even the Israelis seem to believe that Hezbollah had a hand in the attack.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that “the main suspicion points to a nationalistic motive,” according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Initial investigation showed that the assailants opened fire on the patrol car at close range, causing the officers to lose control of the vehicle, the newspaper said.

Police are also investigating the possibility that the attacker or attackers staged a flat tire and then shot the officers when they stopped to help, it added.

Both policemen were found in their vehicle suffering from critical gunshot wounds along Highway 90, a main north-south route filled with security checkpoints.

Some Jewish settlers blamed the incident on the policy of removing checkpoints in the West Bank.

-- Raed Rafei in Beirut

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