A look at Imad Mughniyeh

A look at Imad Mughniyeh:

NAME: Imad Mughniyeh.

AGE: 45. Born Dec. 7, 1962 in Tair Debba, Lebanon.

MILITANT HISTORY: A high-school dropout, he first took up arms as a teenager when he joined the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut. He left the PLO in 1982 and joined Hezbollah, which was founded that year. He rose in the ranks of the group to become the Hezbollah's chief security officer and is accused of being involved in several deadly hijackings and car bombings. He is also suspected of masterminding the attacks on the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s. He is believed to have undergone plastic surgery and spent his last years moving between Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Turkey using fake passports.

FAMILY: His brother Jihad was killed along with 74 people in a car bombing in 1985 in southern Beirut. In 1994, another brother, Fuad, was killed when a booby-trapped car blew up in a southern suburb of Beirut. In 1983, he married a cousin, Saada Badreddin. The couple have a daughter, Fatima, born in 1984, and a son, Mustafa, born in 1987. He is reported to have broken off contact with them.

LAST SIGHTING: Last reported public appearance was at his brother's funeral in 1994. Hezbollah's television station showed a rare picture of him on Wednesday.