Via Israel Matzav, watch it not for the detail (of which there’s little) but just to be part of the moment. Upon further review, the hit was only extremely impressive, not fantastically so: The bomb wasn’t planted in Mughniyeh’s car under his security’s nose, it was inside a car parked next to his and detonated remotely. How the driver managed to get that close and observe the scene long enough to time the detonation correctly is anyone’s guess, but Syria’s already arrested several suspects. Their background? Palestinian.

I try to be judicious about Debka links but this one rings truer than their usual fare. It jibes with Nasrallah screeching yesterday about “open war” with Israel and the point about Syria having to hit back after this and the IAF raid on that mystery site a few months ago is well taken. The Haaretz link up top also mentions the Iranian foreign minister meeting today with Assad and Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, so some sort of coordinated counterstrike isn’t far-fetched. Enjoy all this election/horserace crap now, in other words, because we may have real news to write about very shortly.

Exit question: The Democrats’ foreign policy experts picked some week to visit Damascus, huh?

Update: Too good to check?

A Kuwaiti newspaper reports that Hizbullah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car-bomb attack in Damascus on Tuesday, was in the midst of planning major terrorist attacks in moderate Arab countries when he was killed.

Al-Watan reports that American intelligence had learned that Mughniyeh arrived in Damascus three days earlier with instructions from, and in coordination with, the Iranians. His objective was to meet with Hizbullah leaders and coordinate a mass attack, for which he was to receive help from Syrian intelligence…

Another Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Siasa, reports that Mughniyeh took part, shortly before he was killed, in a secret meeting in the Iranian School in Damascus. Also participating in the meeting were Syrian Intelligence Chief Gen. Aisaf Shwackath, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, and an Islamic Jihad representative. On the agenda: planned attacks in Arab countries that refuse to take part in the coming Arab League summit in Damascus. The newspaper entertains the possibility that the meeting was merely a camouflage for Syrian involvement in Mughniyeh’s killing.

Not sure why he’d care which states did or didn’t attend the summit or why he’d want to solidify Sunni opposition to Iran, particularly vis-a-vis the balance of power in Lebanon, by hitting countries like Kuwait and Jordan.

Update: A pointed question from the JPost: How’d Iran get hold of this cellphone video?