The killing of Imad Mughniyeh looks like it was carried out by Israel's Mossad, said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and Senior Director in the U.S. National Security Council on Wednesday.
Riedel said Israel has carried out similar hits in Damascus in the past. "This is a meaningful operation, regardless of whether Israel wants to admit it is behind it," Riedel said.
Riedel said that the elimination of Mughniyeh shows that Israel successfully penetrated the Hizbullah in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War and that the organization's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, knows he is also in the crosshairs. Riedel is currently a senior member of the Saban Center for the Middle East in the Brookings Institute.