HAMAS RECRUIT SAYS HE WAS TRAINED IN SYRIA

Hamas Recruit Says He Was Trained in Syria This Year - Ravi Nessman (AP/ABC News)
Osama Mattar, 20, now in Israeli custody, told the Associated Press he was recruited from a mosque in Gaza by Hamas militants and received military training in a Hamas camp in Syria this year.

He said he was trained for five weeks by nine instructors - taught to read maps and use a compass, build an electric timer for a time bomb, use light weapons, fire rocket-propelled grenades, and throw hand grenades.

Syrian intelligence agents "know very well about the presence of Hamas," Mattar said. "What they may not have known about was the presence of a guy from Gaza coming to train at the training camp in Syria."

Israeli officials say Syria continues to be a hub for Palestinian militants. "There is ongoing intelligence information that the terrorist groups working out of Syria are directly responsible for suicide bombings in Israel and continue to function and operate with the facilitation of the government in Syria," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "We see today a growing understanding in the international community of the Syrian regime's collaboration with terrorist groups."