Hezbollah appoints successor to slain commander
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah has appointed asuccessor to its senior guerrilla commander Imad Moughniyah whowas assassinated in Syria this week, a Lebanese security sourcesaid on Friday.
The source said the appointment was made hours after theannouncement of Moughniyah's death in a car bomb in Damascus onTuesday. He did not identify the successor who would nowcommand Hezbollah's formidable and well-armed guerrilla army.
A joint investigation into the bombing by Syrians, Iraniansand Hezbollah was well under way and suspects had been arrestedin the Syrian capital, the source said.
Hezbollah and its main backer Iran have accused Israel ofkilling Moughniyah, who was among the United States' mostwanted men. The Israeli government has denied any links, thoughits Mossad spy service had been hunting him for two decades.
"A successor to Imad Moughniyah has been appointed, whichis natural," said the source, who requested anonymity. "That'show Hezbollah works, they move quickly to choose successors offallen leaders."
The source said the successor was not one of the two namesbeing circulated in the Israeli media. Hezbollah leader SayyedHassan Nasrallah has threatened Israel with "open war" inretaliation for the killing.
Moughniyah had been in charge of Hezbollah's securityorgan. He gained legendary status in Hezbollah for a string ofattacks on Israeli and Western targets in Lebanon in the 1980s.
An Iranian Arabic television station released mobile phonefootage of the scene minutes after the blast that killedMoughniyah, chief of the forces of a group that fought a 34-daywar against Israel in 2006.
It showed the car on fire and people running past it.
The source said the investigation showed Moughniyah waskilled by a car bomb parked close to his car. It was detonatedremotely as he walked past after leaving a building he had beenvisiting.
Early reports said the bomb had been placed insideMoughniyah's car.
JOINT INVESTIGATION
The suspects arrested were mostly Palestinians residing inSyria, the Lebanese source said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki agreed withSyrian officials during a visit to Damascus on Thursday to setup a joint team to investigate the killing, Mottaki's deputyAlireza Sheik-Attar said on Friday.
Mottaki had attended Moughniyah's funeral in Beirut.
Moughniyah commanded the Islamic Jihad, a shadowypro-Iranian group which emerged in Lebanon in the early 1980sand was believed to be linked to Hezbollah.
The group claimed many kidnappings and bombings butdisappeared after the release of the last Western hostages inLebanon shortly after the end of the civil war in 1990.
Moughniyah was implicated in the 1983 bombings of the U.S.embassy and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks inBeirut, which killed more than 350 people.
Israel accuses Moughniyah of planning the 1994 bombing of aJewish centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and ofinvolvement in a 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in theArgentine capital that killed 28.
The United States indicted him for his role in planning andparticipating in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner and thekilling of an American passenger.
(Editing by Robert Woodward)