Syria blames bombing on Israeli agents

DAMASCUS - Syria blamed Israel's Mossad intelligence service for a bombing in Damascus yesterday which a Palestinian source in Beirut said was a failed attempt to kill a member of the militant Hamas group.

Three people were slightly hurt in the explosion which destroyed a silver four-wheel-drive vehicle owned by the Palestinian, who escaped.

The unnamed official and his daughter had left the vehicle shortly before the blast.

"The entity behind it is collaborators with the Mossad or the Mossad in particular," Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan told Syrian Satellite Channel.

In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official called the accusation "nonsense".

"Instead of blaming Israel, the Syrians should be cracking down on the terrorists in their midst," as required by the international community, the official said.

A Palestinian source in Lebanon described the target of the bombing as a Hamas member and the official Syrian news agency SANA confirmed the car belonged to a Palestinian but gave no details on who he was.

"The car belongs to a Palestinian citizen which indicates an act of sabotage against our Palestinian brothers in Syria," SANA quoted an Interior Ministry source as saying.

The blast came a day after Hamas and another Palestinian faction killed five Israeli soldiers in a joint attack in the Gaza Strip. Israel has vowed to retaliate for the attack.

The blast is the second attack against a suspected Hamas member in Syria in less than three months.

In September, Izz el-Deen al-Sheikh Khalil, 42, a Hamas official was killed in a bomb blast in his car in Damascus and an Israeli television station, citing unidentified security sources, said Israel was behind the attack.

Israeli security officials had earlier vowed to hit Hamas leaders in Palestinian areas and abroad in response to twin bus bombings that killed 16 people in southern Israel.

The Islamic militant group, behind a wave of suicide attacks that has killed scores of Israeli civilians and soldiers over the past four years, is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Israel has demanded Syria crack down on Palestinian militants as a condition for resuming peace talks, which have been deadlocked since 2000.

 

- REUTERS