And another parasite bud of your no longer around.. Maybe your interviewing for the position ?
Slain Hamas Leader Tied to Arms Group
By CHARLES LEVINSON
JERUSALEM—A top Hamas militant leader found dead in his Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20 was a key link in smuggling operations ferrying Iranian weapons to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, and replacing him could take months, current and former Israeli security officials said on Sunday.
Hamas has accused Israel of assassinating Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, 50 years old, and vowed revenge. Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of the movement's top Gaza-based leaders, warned Israel in an interview on Saturday with Al Jazeera that "Hamas can hit all Israeli targets abroad—anytime, anywhere." .
"Israel wants to change the rules of the game and to open the international field for battles— so it will be responsible for this," Mr. Zahar said.
Israel declined to comment.
Mr. Mahbouh was a founding member of the movement's military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which has carried out scores of attacks against Israel.
In 1989, Mr. Mabhouh plotted the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli officials and Hamas's Web site.
He fled Gaza that year and settled in Damascus, where he rose through the ranks of the group's military leadership.
Col. Barak Ben-Zur, a senior official in Israel's internal Shin Bet security service until 2007, said that while in Damascus, Mr. Mabhouh became "very close to Khaled Meshal," Hamas's Damascus-based leader.
"He was one of the main figures in the military branch of Hamas," he said.
A senior Israeli defense official said Mr. Mabhouh, unlike other Hamas leaders, kept a very low profile, using fake names and avoiding the media.
As Hamas grew closer to Iran in recent years, Mr. Mabhouh came to play a critical liaison role between Hamas militants in Gaza and Iran, including orchestrating weapons deliveries to Gaza-based militants, the official said.
On Jan. 19, Mr. Mabhouh arrived in Dubai and checked into the five-star Bustan Rotana hotel, located near the Dubai airport, according to Hamas officials and local Dubai media.
A spokesman for Hamas in Damascus told the Associated Press that Mr. Mabhouh was laying over in Dubai on his way from Syria to an unspecified third country.
But the following day, he was found dead in his hotel room. Mr. Mabhouh's death became public on Friday, a day after his body was returned to Damascus.
On Saturday, Dubai's police chief, Dhahi Khalfan, told Al Jazeera that he couldn't exclude the possibility that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency was behind Mr. Mabhouh's death, which he said occurred by suffocation.
Dubai security officials, meanwhile, told the state news agency that an "experienced criminal gang" with European passports committed the murder, but said the perpetrators had already fled the country.
The Israeli defense official said Mr. Mahbouh's death would deal a serious setback to smuggling efforts by Hamas.
"The fact that this guy is dead, I think it will only make the situation in our area much better," the official said.
"It won't be easy to replace him because these guys live in secret, all their connections are in secret, so you can't just replace him the next day. It can take a few months and sometimes much longer," the official added.
In recent months, there have been a string of attacks in Lebanon, Syria and Sudan that appeared to target people involved in smuggling weapons to Israel's top two Iran-backed enemies, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Israel has maintained a policy of not commenting on the attacks, but also of not discouraging reports suggesting it is responsible.
For example, a number of Israeli cabinet ministers on Sunday responded to questions from Israeli media about the death of Mr. Mahbouh by refusing to comment, but then offering unsolicited praise for Mossad chief Meir Dagan.
Analysts say the policy of ambiguity allows Israel to increase its deterrence by taking credit for the attacks, even those it may have had nothing to do with, while avoiding international repercussions.
online.wsj.com |
