News of alleged assassination 'stifled to prevent escalation in Syrian leadership tensions.'
By YAAKOV KATZMashaal 224(photo credit: AP)
Hisham al-Labadani, bureau chief for Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, was reportedly assassinated late last week in the western Syrian city of Homs. News of the assassination was reported by the Freedom Party of Syria, an American-based Syrian opposition group.
According to the report, Labadani was dragged from his car in the middle of the day and shot dead.
The report said that news of the assassination was purposely kept quiet to prevent an escalation in tensions between two competing camps within the Syrian leadership - the camp that wants rapprochement with the West and the camp that supports a strengthening in Iranian-Syrian relations.
Israel was not mentioned in the report, but the Mossad was behind the botched assassination attempt against Mashaal in Jordan in 1997.
The assassination of Mashaal's bureau chief came just days after Syria reportedly warned Palestinian leaders based in Damascus of Israeli plans to assassinate them.
In addition to Mashaal, Islamic Jihad leader Ramdan Salah also lives in Damascus.
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