In February 2008, Imad Mughniyeh, one of Hizbullah's top security officials, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus. Five years later, an inside story of Mughniyeh’s assasination is unveiled in the book entitled “Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service”, by Michael Bar-Zohar, an Israeli historian, writer, and a former Knesset member, and Nissim Mishal, one of the foremost TV personalities in Israel and the Director General of the State television.

The book recounts some of the operations conducted by the Mossad, including Mughniyeh’s assassination. In chapter 19, entitled “Love and Death in the Afternoon”, the authors depict the whole picture.

That day, Mughniyeh headed to a luxurious apartment to meet a woman (in her thirties) who he had been secretly married to. Mughniyeh’s secret wife always knew beforehand when he was coming to Syria, and he used to head home alone without any bodyguards escort.

Mughniyeh reportedly underwent plastic surgery in Iran to change his appearance, therefore eluding Western and Israeli Intelligence agencies.

However, a Mossad agent managed to capture photos for Mughniye and transmitted them to the Agency’s headquarters in Tel Aviv in order to be scrutinized.

Three operatives were chosen to accomplish the mission. Holding forged passports, they were supposed to travel separately and arrive at different times in the Syrian capital; the first coming from France, the second from Italy, and the third from Jordan.

The location where the operation would take place had been finally set: the surrounding area of the Iranian Cultural Center, located in Kfar Sousse neighborhood, where Mughniyeh was expected to attend a cocktail party.

The three Mossad operatives had driven past the dead letter-box to pick up the explosives, and worked to prepare the bomb in a locked-up garage that was preset for them, before placing it in a cab car.

That night, other Mossad agents were surveying Mughniyeh’s wife apartment when the targeted man drove off in his silver Mitsubishi Pajero. Meanwhile, the booby-trapped car was parked outside the Iranian Cultural Center. Arriving there, Mughniyeh was walking up the street toward the parked hired car, when the explosion blew out.