The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah accused Israel of having played a role in the assassination of the Hezbollah top commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus. Israel dismissed the allegations.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman said in a statement that “Israel rejects the attempts of terror elements to attribute to Israel any involvement in this incident,” Reuters informs.

Mughniyeh was killed Tuesday night in a car bomb attack in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Hezbollah group announced the death of Imad Mughniyeh on its television channel Wednesday, inviting his supporters to pay their condolences.

“With pride and honor, we announce the martyrdom of a great resistance leader who joined the procession of martyrs in the Islamic resistance. The martyr, may his soul rest in peace, has been a target of the Zionists for more than 20 years.”

Mughniyeh was accused by the United States and Israel of being behind suicide bombings, hijackings, and kidnappings occurring within the past 25 years. After the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, President Bush placed Mughniyeh along with Bin Laden on the list of 22 “most wanted terrorists.”

Mughniyeh had been accused by Israel of orchestrating in 1992 the bombing of an Israeli Embassy in Argentina that killed 29 people. He had also been blamed for the bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994, claiming the life of dozens of people.

Imad Mughniyeh had been held responsible by the United States for the 1985 hijacking of an international flight, in which a man was killed, and for the 1983 bombing of the U. S. Marine barracks in which 241 Marines lost their lives.

He has kept a low profile during the past two decades, and there are very few pictures of him. The United States placed a $25 million bounty over his head after the 1985 hijacking. Unlike Bin Laden, Mughniyeh never gave interviews nor released statements. It is rumored that he had two facial surgeries to change his features.