When Israeli helicopter gunships blasted a motor convoy Sunday afternoon on a road in southern Lebanon, killing Sheik Abbas Musawi, they were settling a bloody score with one of Israel’s most implacable foes.
Musawi, 39, was leader of the pro-Iranian Shi’ite fundamentalist Hezbollah, which Israel holds responsible for most of the terrorist attacks aimed at its territory in recent years and scores of killings.
Hezbollah, which means “Party of God,” heads the Islamic Resistance Movement dedicated to getting the Israel Defense Force and its allied, mainly Christian South Lebanon Army out of the 450-square-mile buffer on Lebanese soil that Israel calls its security zone.
The group’s hit-and-run raids, land mines, Katyusha rocket attacks, infiltration attempts and kidnappings have taken a high toll and kept the IDF and SLA constantly in action.
Musawi was hit traveling from Jibchit village, in southern Lebanon, to Sidon, on the coast, after attending a memorial service for Hussein Rajeb, a Hezbollah leader killed several years ago.
The motorcade was passing through Tafhata village at about 5 p.m. local time when two helicopters descended from the sky, firing a mixture of missiles and machine-gun fire.
The choppers were identified later by personnel of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon as U.S.-made Apaches of the Israeli air force.
Musawi’s Mercedes was set ablaze. According to accounts from Lebanon, the sheik was burned to death with his wife, Shihan, and their 5-year-old son, Hussein.
Seven of Musawi’s bodyguards were either burned in their cars or gunned down as they fled for cover.
After a few hours of silence, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens acknowledged on television that the attack on the convoy was an intentional “hit” to eliminate Musawi.
It was a rare admission for Israel to make. Arens said nothing about the members of Musawi’s family or the members of the sheik’s party trying to flee for their lives.
A LONG RECORD OF VIOLENCE
But the intended message to the Shi’ite fundamentalists was that no one is safe from Israeli retribution.
Even a partial list of terrorist attacks of which Hezbollah has boasted, against Israel and its Western friends and allies, would seem to justify the action, from Israel’s point of view:
April 18, 1983 — A booby-trapped car explodes at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 16 people and injuring 120.
Oct. 23, 1983 — A terrorist driving a TNT laden truck blows himself up and kills 241 U.S. Marines and sailors by crashing into a barracks at Beirut International Airport when most of the men are sleeping.
Nov. 4, 1983 — A booby-trapped car explodes at the IDF command headquarters in Tyre, southern Lebanon, killing 30 and wounding 29. Israel was engaged in a phased withdrawal from Lebanon, which it invaded in June 1982.
Sept. 20, 1984 — An explosion wrecks the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 20 and injuring 16.
March 1, 1985 — A booby-trapped car explodes at a border gate near Metulla, killing 12 Israeli soldiers and wounding 20.
Oct. 19, 1988 — A booby-trapped car kills eight soldiers and wounds seven.
Oct. 20, 1991– A roadside bomb explodes in southern Lebanon, killing three soldiers.
Oct. 29, 1991 — Three more soldiers are killed by a roadside bomb and five are wounded in a separate attack by members of the Islamic Jihad who cooperate with Hezbollah.
STRONGLY OPPOSED TO PEACE TALKS
Sheik Musawi’s hatred of Israel was motivated partly by a desire to get Israeli soldiers off Lebanese soil and partly by his religiously inspired opposition to Zionism and the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East.
In addition to fomenting terrorism, Musawi missed no opportunity to try to halt the peace process with Israel. Hezbollah openly threatened the Lebanese delegates to the bilateral talks.
Hezbollah also is believed responsible for the fate of Ron Arad, an Israeli air force navigator shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and believed to be the only of the missing Israeli soldiers alive.
Musawi was born in Nabi Sheet village in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon. He got his religious education in Qum, the hometown of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran.
He became one of the founders of Hezbollah, which was established with Iran’s assistance in 1982 as the umbrella of a group of extremist Shi’ite organizations. From the outset, its ideology has been strongly anti-Israel and anti-Western.
Musawi rose rapidly in the Hezbollah hierarchy. He soon became officer in charge of operations against Israel. Nine months ago, after an internal reshuffle, he replaced Sheik Subhi Tuffeili as commander of Hezbollah.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
