The Fox is Hunted Down

Riedel says that as recently as late last year Israeli officials complained to him that the militant was the key node in the flow of weapons from Iran to Hizbullah.

The only virtually certain thing now is that Mugniyah's death will be avenged. In Beirut's southern suburbs last Thursday thousands of Lebanese gathered in the football-field-size Martyrs' Mosque to mourn their fallen leader. Hizbullah is widely believed to have at least some operatives inside the United States; law-enforcement personnel assume that the Islamists have not hit America because of very careful political calculations. Still, the scene in Beirut was enough to rattle even the most sanguine Feds. On his videotaped message broadcast on giant TV screens, Nasrallah urged renewed attacks beyond Lebanon and even Israel. Inside the mosque the crowd broke into a roar, and then shouted back: "At your service."

With Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Christopher Dickey in Paris, Mitchell Prothero in Beirut and Maziar Bahari in Tehran

© 2008