UPDATED: HAMAS LEADERS CAN RUN BUT THEY CAN'T HIDE

Top Hamas leader assassinated in Damascus
Nine hours after a car bomb exploded in the Syrian capital on Sunday killing top Hamas terrorist Izz al-Din al-Sheikh Khalil, the Syrian government called the assassination "an Israeli act of state terrorism in the heart of Damascus."

A Syrian Interior Ministry source identified Khalil to the official news agency as a Palestinian citizen "who did not carry out any [organized] activity in Syrian territories," Reuters reported.

While not confirming nor denying involvement in Khalil's death, Israeli officials said he was involved in the transfer of arms from Syria and Lebanon to Hamas hands in the Palestinian territories. Security sources said Khalil, while not as well-known as Hamas political figures, was very closely linked to Hamas cells in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They also said he gave the orders for the double suicide bombing attack in Beersheba on August 31 that killed 16 Israelis.

Izzadin Kassam, Hamas's armed wing, vowed to avenge Khalil by attacking Israeli targets overseas, the group said in a statement issued in the Gaza Strip.

"We have allowed hundreds of thousands of Zionists to travel and move in capitals around the world in order not to be the party that shifts the struggle overseas. But the Zionist enemy has done so and should bear the consequences of its actions," said the statement, a copy of which was faxed to the pan-Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, which broadcast the message.

"We announce an escalation in the fight between us and the Zionist enemy," Hamas spokesman Sami Zuhari said on Al-Jazeera.

Striking Outside the Ball Park - Arieh O'Sullivan
The psychological and strategic benefits of hitting a senior Hamas figure in Damascus are great. The strike came after repeated finger-pointing and warnings by Israel that it would widen its war on terrorists and that no place was immune. Bashir Assad was caught red-handed. After declaring that the Hamas leadership had all cleared out of town, one of them found himself blown to bits right there in the capital. The message Israel delivered to Damascus Sunday is that Israel is willing to go up a notch in its war on terror. The major impact of the strike was its political message that Syria is vulnerable to Israeli actions and that if nothing is done the stakes will get higher. (Jerusalem Post)