While challenges to Syria are accumulating, the assassination of a prominent Hamas member only complicates matters. Sherine Bahaa reports Izzuddin Al-Sheikh Khalil is neither Ahmed Yassin nor Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi. However, the anger at his assassination among Palestinians was palpable. Khalil, 42, was one of the Hamas leaders who masterminded the campaign of suicide bombings and a founder of the group's military wing, the Qassam Brigades. He was a close associate of Yehya Ayash, the engineer, who himself was a victim of Israel's targeted assassination policy during the 1990s. Khalil was driving away from his home in Al- Zahraa, a suburb of Damascus, when his mobile phone rang. He took the call, and a bomb apparently placed under the driver's seat exploded, ripping his body apart, wounding three passers-by and shattering nearby windows. Israeli security officials had vowed to renew an assassination campaign against Hamas leaders in Palestinian areas and abroad in response to the twin bus bombings on 31 August that killed 16 people in Beersheba. In fact, the attack was mainly linked to the Damascus-based Hamas offices by Israeli officials. For their part, the Israeli authorities stopped short of denying responsibility for the assassination of Khalil. However, only a couple of days earlier, Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Yuval Steinitz said that it is "our duty and not just our right to attack and kill those who try to kill us, and our response can reach as far as Damascus". Moreover, a report that was published in the daily London-based Al-Hayat only two days before the assassination of Khalil pointed to an involvement of an Arab secret intelligence service. The report claimed that an Arab country had handed the Mossad a file with details about the leaders of Hamas abroad including their daily routine and went as far as detailing their food habits. Al-Baath Editor-in-Chief Mahdi Dakhlallah, who had believed the report to be groundless before Khalil's assassination, now found the sequence of events in the report logical. He said he had no evidence to back up the accusations, but it "seems logical to think that way". Many observers suspect Jordan to be the Arab country involved. Hamas officials agree. "This is the work of the Jordanian intelligence. We have been warned in the past that Jordan was stepping up its security coordination with Israel, not only against Hamas, but also against other Palestinian groups. Hamas will find a way to punish the traitors," one Hamas official was quoted in The Jerusalem Post as saying. "The feeling here on the street is that Jordan is the number one suspect. The secret services of Jordan and Israel have traditionally had a close working relationship, especially since the two countries signed the peace agreement in 1995," said a report on the Jazeeranet website. "Many also believe that both countries see the Islamic movement in the region as their main enemy." The prime objective of the assault could be to prove "Israel's long reach". It was a clear-cut message to Hamas members that if Damascus has not evicted them they better leave on their own decision. But this was not a big secret; Hamas officials have known it for long. At the same time observers also believe that the major impact of the strike was its political message to the Syrians, that it is vulnerable to Israeli actions and that if nothing is done the stakes will get higher. The assassination of Khalil opened a new front in Israel's tough campaign against its enemies that goes beyond the geopolitical limitations of borders. It is, as Syrian officials called it, "exporting the crisis". For one aspect, it was a rare foray into Syria which could prove to be the starter for similar assaults in other parts of the world. This event is believed to be only the second in 30 years: a year ago a training camp not far from Damascus was hit by Israeli air forces. Thus, any analytical thinking of the attack has to be undertaken in view of its time frame regarding the Syrians. One aspect is the increasing pressure from the US regarding some reports of infiltrators who crossed the border between Syria and Iraq and had been held responsible for a lot of the insurgency in Iraq, and reports alleging that part of Saddam Hussein's wealth was smuggled into Syria before the war in Iraq. Another aspect is Lebanon. Two weeks ago, the Syrian authorities suffered the unprecedented humiliation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1559 demanding the withdrawal of Syria's forces from Lebanon, which they have effectively occupied since 1975. In response, Syria announced a redeployment of thousands of troops in a move that could later become a withdrawal. Last May, Syria paid a dear price for harbouring resistance movements like Hamas, Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, after the US Congress's endorsement of the Accountability Act that entails economic sanctions on Damascus, a gun pointed at their head. But how will Damascus respond? -- if it does respond. Syria's response has always manifested itself in indirect actions against Israel, but this time even this level of reaction seems to be highly unlikely. Rhetoric is the best face saving formula on such occasions. "Israeli authorities have taken a dangerous step by the assassination," said the official Syria news agency SANA, calling it a "terrorist operation... Israel asserts its intentions to destabilise the region at a time when regional and international efforts are being exerted to ease the tension in the region."
