Mughniyah, Imad Fayez (1962–)

aka Mr. Haij

Deemed “the ultimate faceless terrorist” in press accounts, Imad Fayez Mughniyah has eluded the FBI since the early 1980s. According to U.S. officials, he has been tied to the hijacking of a commercial jet, four mass bombings, and the abductions of six American, one British, and five French hostages. At times described as the senior intelligence officer of Hezbollah, at others Hezbollah's security chief or operations chief, he is on the FBI's list of the 22 “most wanted terrorists.”

Born in Tir Dibba in the hills of southern Lebanon overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Mughniyah was forced to leave his town for the slums of southern Beirut when Israel began attacking Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon in the late 1970s. The death of his brother, who was shot by Lebanese Army troops in the Muslim suburbs of Beirut, was a turning point in ...