Commander Became Prototype of Extremism

British soldiers aided rescue operations in 1983 after the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon was bombed, killing 241 U.S. service members, in one of many attacks attributed to Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah. (By Bill Foley -- Associated Press)

Thomas Sutherland, a former dean at the American University of Beirut who was seized in 1985, yesterday recalled his encounters with Mughniyah, whom he described as short with stubby hands.

"We met Mughniyah right after I was kidnapped. He shook hands with me and welcomed me. He told me that everything was good, very good, and very soon we would be freed," Sutherland said. The Colorado academic was instead held for six years and five months, the second-longest period of captivity among the American hostages.

Mughniyah won a place on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list for the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. During a stop in Beirut, hijackers took U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem to the door of the plane, forced him to kneel, shot him in the head and dumped his body on the tarmac. Passengers and crew were then held hostage for two weeks before being freed.

Cultivated and trained in part by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mughniyah became the operational link between Hezbollah and Tehran. He was instrumental in setting up Hezbollah's military operations in south Lebanon before the 2006 war with Israel. He had since gotten Iran to resupply the Shiite Muslim movement with longer-range missiles, according to U.S. intelligence.

The U.S. military was elated by Mughniyah's death. The Pentagon says he was also involved in the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers, a compound for foreign military personnel in the Saudi city of Dhahran, where 19 American service members were killed.

"We welcome the news that Imad Mughniyah's life of terror has finally come to an end. From Beirut to Dhahran, he orchestrated bombings, kidnappings and hijackings in which hundreds of American service members were killed," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell. "Hopefully, his demise will bring some measure of comfort to the families of all those military men he murdered."

But some Marine families had mixed feelings. Larry Gerlach is a retired Marine colonel whose injuries in the 1983 barracks bombing left him a quadriplegic.

"Your first reaction is yeah, good," said his wife, Patti. "But then you realize that what you're talking about is someone who was blown up in a car bomb -- and you don't want to feel happy about something like that."

Her husband interjected: "But I do."