[Bejin]

Relationships to al Qaeda and other organizations

Mugniyah has been accused of being an ally of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. According to the testimony of Ali Mohamed, he arranged security for a meeting between Mugniyah and al-Qaeda operatives in 1993. This connection has led some to believe he was also behind the 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers complex, which resulted in the deaths of 19 American service members, 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in East Africa and the USS Cole bombing in 2000.

Some foreign policy experts, including conservative Michael Ledeen, have claimed that Mughniyah has had a strong working relationship with Al Qaeda and Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, especially in recent years with the invasion of Iraq[citation needed]. However, most experts speculate that Zarqawi's intense hatred towards Shia Islam, which Mughniyah belongs to, would have prevented such an alliance.

He has also been linked to Palestinian actions, such as the Karine A incident in 2002, where the Palestinian Authority was accused of importing fifty tons of weapons. He was previously a member of Force 17, an armed branch of the Fatah movement charged with providing security for Yasser Arafat and other prominent PLO officials.

In mid-February 1997, the pro-Israeli South Lebanese Army radio station reported that Iran's intelligence service dispatched Mughniyah to Lebanon to directly supervise the reorganization of Hezbollah's security apparatus concerned with Palestinian affairs in Lebanon and to work as a security liaison between Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence. Mughniyah also reportedly controls Hezbollah's security apparatus, the Special Operations Command, which handles intelligence and conducts overseas terrorist acts. Although he uses Hezbollah as a cover, he reports to the Iranians.[7]

The EU lists him as "Senior Intelligence Officer of Hezbollah".[8]

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