SIDON, Lebanon — A car bomb FridayA parked car exploded as Mahmoud Majzoub and his brother Nidal Majzoub were walking in Sidon, a coastal city 24 miles south of Beirut. Majzoub is Islamic Jihad's leader in Sidon. Mahmoud was seriously wounded and was taken to hospital. This just in: (AKI) - A Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander, Mahmoud Majdub, wounded in a carbomb blast in southern Lebanon earlier on Friday has died during surgery. His brother Nidal was instantly killed, said the security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Islamic Jihad's representative in Lebanon, Abu Imad Rifai, blamed Israeli intelligence for the attack. "This morning the Israeli Mossad detonated an explosive charge," Rifai told The Associated Press. "This is the second time Mahmoud is targeted and I believe it comes in the framework of Israeli escalation against the Palestinian people, particularly Islamic Jihad." Majzoub narrowly escaped death in October 1998 when he pulled his wife and infant son away from his booby-trapped car seconds before it exploded on a main street in Sidon. The three were wounded, along with a Syrian passer-by. At the time, Islamic Jihad also blamed Israel for that attack.
Nidal is believed to be a lower-ranking official of Islamic Jihad but the security officials were unable to confirm his affiliation.
The group has continued to launch attacks on Israel since a February 2005 truce that the main militant group Hamas, which swept Palestinian legislative elections, has respected. Islamic Jihad is led by Ramadan Shallah, a Palestinian from Gaza who now lives in exile in Syria. It considers the 1979 Iranian Revolution to be the beginning of a new era for the Muslim world and wants to turn all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza into an Islamic state. It rules out compromise with Israel.