Jihad Mughniyah

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Jihad Mughniyah
Mughniyah at the funeral of Qasem Soleimani's mother, 2013
Hezbollah Head of Security
[citation needed]
Personal details
Born(1991-05-02)2 May 1991
Tayr Dibba, Lebanon
Died18 January 2015(2015-01-18) (aged 23)
Golan Heights, Quneitra Governorate, Syria
Political partyHezbollah
Parent

Jihad Mughniyah (Arabic: جهاد مغنية; 2 May 1991 – 18 January 2015) was a Lebanese politician and prominent member of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, and the son of Imad Mughniyeh. He was killed in 2015 in the Mazraat Amal incident, an airstrike attributed to Israel.

Biography[edit]

Jihad Mughniyah was the son of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese Islamist who defended against Israel and the United States in the Middle East. He was of Lebanese Shia Muslim descent. Jihad was born in Tayr Dibba, near Tyre. He was the third child of Imad Mughniyeh from his first marriage to Saedi Badreddine.[1][2] Jihad had 5 more half-siblings from his father's other marriages; Israa, Hasan, Hussein, Foad, Zahraa. Jihad was studying business at LAU, but dropped out the last semester before graduation to continue working for Hezbollah.[3]

In 1991 his family, without Imad Mughniyeh, went to Iran for security reasons.[4] Later they came back to Lebanon and began their life in South Lebanon.[5] Jihad Mughniyah became well-known in Iran by sharing his pictures of him standing behind Qasem Soleimani in Soleimani's mother's funeral.[6] In 2008, his father was killed in a car bombing in Damascus[7] in what has been described as a joint Mossad-CIA operation.[8] Mughniyah proclaimed his allegiance to Hezbollah's secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah a week after the assassination of his father, blaming Israel for the killing. Some sources says he was one of Hassan Nasrallah's bodyguards.[9] Mughniyah was targeted in the bid to stop Hezbollah establishing a missile base in the Quneitra region on the border of Syria's Golan Heights.[10]

Death[edit]

On 18 January 2015, days after Nasrallah declared that Israel's airstrikes in Syria meant that the Syrian Arab Republic and its allies had the right to respond, an Israeli helicopter attacked Mughniyah's positions in the Quneitra Governorate of Syria, killing him and five other Hezbollah commanders, including Mohamad Issa, when they were reportedly driving in a convoy alongside Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) troops near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.[11] Hezbollah retaliated on January 28 by firing anti-tank missiles at an IDF convoy on the Shebaa Farms, killing two IDF soldiers.[12]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Six Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli air strike". Now. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016.
  2. ^ Zitun, Yoav; Kais, Roi (18 January 2015). "Jihad Mughniyeh planned attacks against Israel in the Golan Heights". Ynetnews. Ynet news.
  3. ^ "Al-Ahed Translations:Proud and Defiant Youth Partake in Mass..." english.alahednews.com.lb. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  4. ^ "Car bomb kills Imad Mugniyah, The Fox". Nation Special. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ Borzou Daragahi; Sebastian Rotella (31 August 2008). "Hezbollah warlord was an enigma". Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ "Hezbollah figure killed in Syria had ties to Soleimani". Al-Monitor.
  7. ^ "Killing of Imad Mugniyah". Washington Post.
  8. ^ "Imad Mughniyeh was killed in joint Mossad, CIA operation'". The Times Of Israel.
  9. ^ "Sources Reveal Jihad Mughniyeh 'Was Nasrallah's Bodyguard'". Israel National news. 21 January 2015.
  10. ^ "Strike targeted Hezbollah bid to set up missile bases on Golan". Times of Israel. 20 January 2015.
  11. ^ "Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli attack".
  12. ^ "Israel admits its fire killed Spanish UN peacekeeper". BBC News. 7 April 2015.