The CIA and Israeli intelligence worked together to assassinate a Hezbollah leader with a hidden bomb, The Washington Post reported Friday.
Imad Mughniyah was the head of Hezbollah's international operations and had been hunted for decades. On Feb. 12, 2008, as he walked away from a Damascus restaurant and approached an SUV, a bomb went off. According to reports that followed his death, the blast incinerated him.
The new report from The Post cites five unnamed U.S. officials who say the CIA helped orchestrate that blast.
The report explains that the bomb had been planted in a spare tire. Mossad agents in Tel Aviv triggered the explosion, which sent shrapnel in a tight radius that was designed to eliminate collateral damage, the Post reported.
The U.S., however, spent months working with Mossad, Israel's spy agency, to monitor Mughniyah and figure out where to plant the bomb. When the time finally came to take action, the CIA actually built and tested the explosive device to make sure it worked.
"We probably blew up 25 bombs to make sure we got it right," an unnamed official told the Post. American officials also reportedly had the authority to call off the operation.
According to the newspaper, the operation was approved by an array of U.S. officials including the attorney general, director of national intelligence, and a member of the Justice Department. President George W. Bush may also have signed off on the action.
The U.S. has never official acknowledged it's role in Mughniyah's killing.
The Hezbollah chief was responsible for bombings of U.S. embassies that date back to the early 1980s. Officials also say Mughniyah was responsible for the kidnapping of a U.S. Marine colonel in 1989. Mughniyah's terror attacks continued through the 1990s and according to the Post he was ultimately implicated in the deaths of hundreds of U.S. citizens.