Israeli map shows 'Terror Network' in Damascus
( 2003-10-08 09:25) (Agencies)
We know where you live.
That was the unmistakable message of the release by Israeli authorities on Tuesday of a map pinpointing what it said were homes and offices of Palestinian militant leaders in Damascus.
The army said the map was intended to illustrate the extent of the "Terror Network in the Damascus Region." It came on the same day that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel would attack its enemies "any place, and in any way."
On Sunday Israeli planes bombed what the Israeli military said was a training camp for Palestinian militants near Damascus, after a suicide bomb killed 19 people in Haifa. Syria said the target of the Damascus strike was a civilian site.
The Israeli army map shows supposed locations of the homes of senior Hamas leaders Mousa Abu Marzook and Khaled Mashal, Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah and Ahmed Jibril, chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command (PFLP-GC).
It also shows 10 sites in Damascus the army says are the political, military and in some cases media offices for Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Fatah and the PFLP-GC.
A Palestinian official, who refused to give his location or affiliation, said: "This step shows that Israel plans to press ahead with its assassinations policy and to give it an international dimension."
"Do they think this will scare a group of people who are willing to die for their cause? If so, this is where they are very wrong. I am dead since 1948 and nothing scares me or any Palestinian man, woman or child," he added.
"This is a very cheap form of blackmail against Syria because it refuses to bow to U.S. and Israeli pressure," another official said in Syria.
LEADERS MOVE FROM PLACE TO PLACE
Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources in the West Bank and Gaza Strip said Abu Marzook, Mashal and Shallah moved between Damascus and Beirut for "security reasons."
Syria, which has been under intense U.S. pressure to kick militant groups out of its territory, says Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian groups maintain only media offices in Damascus.
"The map is proof of the extensive presence of Palestinian terror groups in Syria," an Israeli security source said. "We said it before and we say it again, everyone that is involved in terror and endangers the lives of Israeli citizens is not immune."
Sharon took a tough line on Tuesday but made no specific threats.
"Israel will not be deterred from defending its citizens and will hit its enemies any place and in any way," he said in a speech broadcast live from a military cemetery in Jerusalem.
"At the same time we will not miss any opening and opportunity to reach an agreement with our neighbors and peace."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, breaking his silence on the attack near Damascus, accused Israel of trying to drag Syria and the rest of the Middle East into a wider conflict.
Analysts see Israel stepping up its campaign to pressure Syria to cut links with Palestinian militant groups and expect more clashes with Hizbollah guerrillas on the border with Lebanon, where Syria acts as the main powerbroker.
But they expect it to stop well short of war.
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