New Syrian terror group threatens Israel
Pastor Dale Morgan
New Syrian terror group threatens Israel*
Posted: February 13, 2007
News from Israel
JERUSALEM – Marking its official public debut, a purported new Syrian
terror group today claimed it is holding a missing Israeli soldier and
will free the captive in exchange for nine Syrians held in Israeli jails.
A group calling itself the Syrian Front for the Liberation of the Golan
Heights faxed a statement to reporters addressing "the Zionists" and
offering a prisoner-swap deal for Israeli soldier Guy Hever, who has
been missing since 1997 and who the group claimed is in its custody.
Hever disappeared in the Golan Heights near the Syrian border.
The Syrian Front for the Liberation of the Golan first announced its
establishment last June.
Leaders for the Syrian Front threatened if Israel does not vacate the
Golan Heights within months, the group will launch "resistance
operations" against Israeli positions and Jewish communities in the
Golan Heights.
The leaders claimed the group formed in Syria in June and is modeling
itself after the Syrian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
Today's statement signed by the Syrian Front for the Liberation of the
Golan read, "Don't think that your millions of dollars will bring back
your soldier missing from the Golan. You know very well how you can get
him back."
The group demanded Israel release nine Syrian prisoners, residents of
the Golan Heights currently being held in Israeli jails. Four of the
nine have been jailed for over 22 years.
The Front warned Israel against "bringing harm" to the jailed Syrians.
The authenticity of the statement could not immediately be verified.
An official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party said Syria
learned from Hezbollah's military campaign against Israel that
"fighting" is more effective than peace negotiations with regard to
gaining territory."
Hezbollah claims its goal is to liberate the Shebaa Farms, a small,
12-square-mile bloc situated between Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The
cease-fire resolution accepted by Israel to end its military campaign in
Lebanon this past summer calls for negotiations leading to Israel's
relinquishing of the Shebaa Farms.
The Baath official said that Syria's new Committees for the Liberation
of the Golan Heights consists of Syrian volunteers, many from the Syrian
border with Turkey and from Palestinian refugee camps near Damascus. He
said Syria held registration for volunteers to join the Committees in June.
The official said attacks by the Committees may include the infiltration
of Jewish communities in the Golan, rocket attacks against Israeli
positions or raids of Golan-based Israeli military installations. He
said all attacks would be launched from the Syrian side of the border.
The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory captured by the
Jewish state after Syria used the terrain to attack Israel in 1967 and
again in 1973. The Heights looks down on major Syrian and Israeli
population centers, but there are a few areas where the Israeli and
Syrian sides are level.
Military officials here long have maintained returning the Golan Heights
to Syria would grant Damascus the ability to mount an effective ground
invasion of the Jewish state.
The Heights has a population of about 35,000 – approximately 18,000
Jewish residents and 17,000 Arabs, mostly Druze. The Arab residents
retain their Syrian citizenship, but under Israeli law they can also sue
for Israeli citizenship. About a dozen officials from Assad's Baath
party live and operate in the Golan.
Israeli security officials confirmed the establishment of a
Hezbollah-like Syrian group, but said it was still in its infancy stages
and likely cannot currently carry out attacks.