Photo: Feb. 14: Hezbollah supporters carry the coffin of their slain top commander Imad Mughniyeh during his funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon. APFrom The Wall Street Journal:
For months Israeli intelligence had hunted Salah Shehada, the leader of Hamas’s military wing and mastermind of dozens of terrorist attacks that had killed more than 200 Israelis. Israel aborted eight attempts to strike Mr. Shehada to avoid killing his daughter, who often stayed with him.
Eventually an informer presented Israeli intelligence with the opening it had been waiting for: on July 22, 2002, Mr. Shehada would be in an apartment building with no children nearby. Not knowing where in the building the master terrorist would be, the Israelis launched a 2,000-pound bomb, fearing that a smaller one would not kill him. But their intelligence was incomplete. When the bomb struck, Mr. Shehada was present, but so too were his wife and daughter, as well as squatters occupying the surrounding buildings. Fourteen civilians, including nine children, died in the strike.
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My Comment: Targeted killings work, the problem has always been having the right intelligence to pinpoint where your target is .... and when you have that information to then act upon it ASAP.
There were numerous instances in the late 1990s when intelligence knew where Bin Laden was .... but on numerous occasions the orders were never given out because of fears in having collateral damage and/or not having confidence with the intelligence.
After 9/11 this has clearly changed. If the U.S. has excellent information on where Bin laden is hiding, I am sure the order (if it is not a standing order already) will be sent out to have a Reaper drone visit him with a missile ASAP.