Lebanon Hostage Crisis - Perpetrators

Perpetrators

Many other "groups" claimed responsibility for the kidnappings while Hezbollah denied it, indignantly proclaiming in 1987:

We look with ridicule at the accusations of Hezbollah in connection with the abductions of foreign hostages. We consider that is a provocation and hold America responsible for the results.

Nonetheless Hezbollah, sometimes described as the "umbrella group" of Shia radicalism in Lebanon, is considered by most observers to be the instigator of the crisis.

Analysis of the hostage-crisis in Lebanon yields that Hezbollah was undisputably responsible for the aforementioned abductions of Westerners despite attempts to shield its complicity through the employment of cover-names. Its organisational framework was not only sophisticated and assimilated according to Iranian clerical designs but also closely integrated with several key Iranian institutions which provided it with both necessary weaponry and training to successfully confront self-proclaimed Islamic enemies and invaluable financial support ...

Another source claims that with the exceptions of six Iranians, all the hostages appear to have been seized by "groups allied with Iran."

The two main operatives of the hostage taking are reported to be:

• Imad Mughniyah, a senior member of the Hezbollah organization, has been described by journalist Robin Wright as the "master terrorist" who organized the campaign.

• Husayn Al-Musawi (also spelled Hussayn al-Mussawi) is described by journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The New Yorker magazine as involved in the kidnappings, and the village of Ras al-Ein, in the Beqaa Valley of East Lebanon as a place were the victims were held.