Explosion kills top Hezbollah commander

DAMASCUS, Syria, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Imad Mugniyah, a top military commander of Hezbollah and listed among the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists," died in an explosion in Syria.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for Mugniyah's death; Israel had no comment, CNN reported Wednesday.

Mugniyah died Tuesday in an explosion in a residential section of Damascus, reported Al-Manar, Hezbollah's television station.

The FBI listed Mugniyah, 45, as one of its "Most Wanted Terrorists," saying he had a role in the June 14, 1985, hijacking of TWA Flight 847. Hijackers seized the plane en route from Athens to Rome, forcing it to land at a Beirut airport. During the 17-day ordeal, U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem was killed.

Mugniyah also has been implicated in numerous terrorist attacks against the United States, France and Israel in which hundreds of people were killed, the Jerusalem Post reported. Among the attacks Mugniyah is suspected of having a role are the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and barracks housing U.S. Marines and French paratroopers who were part of the Multinational Force in Lebanon.