AFP
Syria nabs four Arabs linked to 'Mossad' over attempt on Hamas leader
Date: Tuesday October 12
BEIRUT (AFP) - Four Arabs have been detained in Syria over a plot by the Israeli spy agency Mossad to assassinate Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based politburo chief of the Palestinian movement Hamas.
"We have been recently informed that four Arab members of an Arab security service from a country neighboring Syria and who are collaborating with the Mossad have been detained in Syria over the plot," Ali Barakeh, head of Hamas political relations affairs in Lebanon, told reporters.
"They include a woman," he said Tuesday.
Barakeh did not wish to name the third country, but said "they belong to the same country that has presented information to Israel about Hamas officials."
"It is very regretful that an Arab country is helping Israel instead of backing the Palestinians," he said.
A Hamas militant was killed September 26 when his car blew up in Damascus in what Syria and the hardline Palestinian movement said was an assassination by Israel's Mossad spy agency.
Syria's official media said the killing was carried out by Israel with the collaboration of "Arab security services."
Officials in Jerusalem have privately confirmed to the Israeli media that the Jewish state was behind the car bombing.
Israel has repeatedly threatened to strike Hamas militants at home and abroad, including Damascus, where a number of the movement's senior officials are based.
The Israeli government claims that Hamas's strategic planning is now being almost totally conducted in Damascus, although a handful of autonomous cells still exist in the West Bank and Gaza.
Khaled Meshaal has emerged as overall Hamas leader after Israel assassinated two other top figures earlier this year.
On September 25, 1997, agents from Israel's Mossad secret service bungled an attempt to assassinate Meshaal on a street in Amman by injecting him with poison.
Jordanian authorities deported Meshaal and four other Hamas leaders five years ago amid allegations of illegal activities.
Meshaal now divides his time among Syria, Lebanon and the Gulf countries, but has rarely been seen in Damascus since the Hamas offices were closed amid US pressure. He turned up in Cairo last month.
SOURCE
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