Mossad mystery Chequered history of spy agency that is yet to admit sabotage

Israel's foreign intelligence service, usually known as the Mossad, has scored many spectacular wins in almost 80 years of undercover operations, earning a unique reputation for audacious espionage and ruthless violence.

- Jason Burke

But even former agents admit the service's history is "chequered" with many failures that have embarrassed Israel, dismayed allies and led to accusations of systematic disregard for international law.

Israel has not formally commented on this week's simultaneous explosion of thousands of pagers and walkietalkies used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon but the consensus among experts is that the Mossad, an abbreviation of the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations in Hebrew, was responsible.

Other recent operations will also almost certainly have involved the service. The Mossad may have provided the intelligence allowing the assassinations in July of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader killed by a bomb in a bedroom in a government guesthouse in Tehran, and Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah founder member and effective chief of staff, who died in Beirut after receiving a message summoning him to an apartment that was then hit by a missile.

Though the most audacious operations get most attention, much of the Mossad's work is never known outside tightly restricted circles. For decades, few had even heard of the organisation, which was formally established in 1949. It never admitted its involvement in any operation.