Mossad Suspected in Killing of Hamas Member in Syria

A Hamas member was killed Wednesday in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, a senior member of the group told Agence France Presse, adding that they suspected Israel's spy agency of being behind the attack.

The victim was Kamal Hussein Ghannaje, said the official, speaking under condition of anonymity.

"A group of people entered his home in Qudsaya ... where he was liquidated," the official said. "According to our information, Mossad was behind the assassination."

The official said Ghannaje was one of the deputies of Mahmoud Abdel Raouf al-Mabhuh, a senior Hamas military commander found dead in a Dubai hotel room in 2010.

Investigators there said they believed Mossad was behind that murder.

The political wing of Hamas is based in Damascus and has received the backing of the Syrian government in recent years against Israel.

But in Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said it was not "necessarily true" that Mossad was behind Ghannaje's assassination, adding that nonetheless he would not mourn the Hamas member because he was not "one of the righteous of his generation."

Syria has long allowed Hamas to operate offices in Damascus, but in recent months, the Palestinian group has quietly moved most of its operations elsewhere as an uprising that is spiraling into civil war has rocked the country.

The situation in Syria has been a key concern for Israel, and topped the agenda of talks between Israeli officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin who visited the Jewish state earlier this week.

Barak on Thursday expressed hope that no new arms would be sent to Syria, adding that Putin "listened perfectly to what we said" on the issue, particularly on the delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missiles.