Hamas militant killed in Damascus explosion

DAMASCUS – A Hamas militant was killed in an explosion in the Syrian capital Damascus yesterday, in what the hardline Palestinian movement said was an assassination by Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

“The victim Ezzeddin Sheikh Khalil, 40, was a member of Hamas,” a Palestinian source in Damascus said. Israel has recently threatened to strike Hamas militants at home and abroad, including Damascus, where a number of the movement’s senior officials are based.”We blame Mossad for putting a bomb in his car,” Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for Hamas, told AFP in Gaza City.An AFP correspondent at the scene in the al-Hakleh district of southern Damascus said the victim’s car had been destroyed, suggesting it had been booby-trapped.Al-Masri said Khalil, who was born in Gaza City, was among some 400 Palestinian militants deported by Israel to Lebanon in 1992.In Israel’s last major strike against Hamas, 15 members of the group’s military wing the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, were killed on September 7 while they were undergoing training on a football field in Gaza.The attack, carried out by combat aircraft, was Israel’s first major response to a double Hamas suicide bombing in the southern city of Beersheva the week before which left 16 Israelis dead, as well as the two bombers.After that strike, Israel warned that its campaign against Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, would also be extended to a pursuit of the movement’s Syrian-based leadership as well as its foot soldiers.”We will strike Hamas everywhere – in Gaza, in Damascus – in order to avoid the assassinations of Israelis,” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP at the time.”This organisation does not want to negotiate but destroy the state of Israel and kill Jews.”Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based politburo chief who emerged as overall Hamas leaders after Israel assassinated two other top figures earlier this year, is thought to be top of the list of Israel’s targets.He turned up in Cairo last week.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.- Nampa-AFPIsrael has recently threatened to strike Hamas militants at home and abroad, including Damascus, where a number of the movement’s senior officials are based.”We blame Mossad for putting a bomb in his car,” Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for Hamas, told AFP in Gaza City.An AFP correspondent at the scene in the al-Hakleh district of southern Damascus said the victim’s car had been destroyed, suggesting it had been booby-trapped.Al-Masri said Khalil, who was born in Gaza City, was among some 400 Palestinian militants deported by Israel to Lebanon in 1992.In Israel’s last major strike against Hamas, 15 members of the group’s military wing the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, were killed on September 7 while they were undergoing training on a football field in Gaza.The attack, carried out by combat aircraft, was Israel’s first major response to a double Hamas suicide bombing in the southern city of Beersheva the week before which left 16 Israelis dead, as well as the two bombers.After that strike, Israel warned that its campaign against Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, would also be extended to a pursuit of the movement’s Syrian-based leadership as well as its foot soldiers.”We will strike Hamas everywhere – in Gaza, in Damascus – in order to avoid the assassinations of Israelis,” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP at the time.”This organisation does not want to negotiate but destroy the state of Israel and kill Jews.”Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based politburo chief who emerged as overall Hamas leaders after Israel assassinated two other top figures earlier this year, is thought to be top of the list of Israel’s targets.He turned up in Cairo last week.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.- Nampa-AFP