Israeli warns of terrorist training

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said yesterday terrorist bases in Lebanon are training some of the foreign fighters who are moving into Iraq to kill American troops.

In an interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times, Mr. Mofaz also said Israel’s October bombing of an Islamic Jihad terror camp near the Syrian capital of Damascus included a jet fighter buzzing near one of President Bashar Assad’s palaces. The daring low-level mission was meant as a signal to Mr. Assad that more punishing attacks would come unless Damascus stops sponsoring attacks on Israel from Syria-dominated Lebanon.

“I believe Bashar Assad is a very strange leader,” Mr. Mofaz said of the son of the late, longtime Ba’athist leader of Syria, Hafez Assad. “He has very strange behavior.”

On foreign fighters who are organizing suicide attacks in Iraq, Mr. Mofaz said his intelligence shows that some are trained by Hezbollah and other terror groups in Lebanon. Hezbollah is a Shi’ite terror militia funded by Iran and supported by Mr. Assad.

“We do have information that Hezbollah members, al Qaeda members and other terrorist groups from Syria are crossing into Iraq, and they are part of the resistance against the U.S. forces,” the defense minister said.

Asked whether Hezbollah is training recruits to enter Iraq, Mr. Mofaz said, “They train them to be terrorists. To what directions [they are] sending them is a different question. Part of them, I believe, are going to Iraq.”

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said this week he thinks about 200 foreign fighters are now in the country in an alliance with Saddam Hussein loyalists attacking American soldiers. The Pentagon says that another 200 foreign insurgents are in custody and that scores have been killed.

Washington repeatedly has warned Syria not to encourage the influx from its borders. The U.S. and pro-coalition Iraqis have stepped up patrols along the porous desert boundary and turned many foreigners back into Syria.

Mr. Mofaz, a retired general who served as Israel’s chief of general staff, was tapped by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a year ago to join his Cabinet. Mr. Mofaz, a paratrooper and war hero who attended Command and Staff College at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, sat down for a wide-ranging interview with The Times in his hotel room in Washington.

He arrived for three days of talks, beginning Monday, with senior Bush officials. They included Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Mr. Mofaz said he discussed with Mr. Rumsfeld maintaining a “qualitative edge” militarily, but declined to give specifics in the interview. Washington is Israel’s No. 1 foreign benefactor, with $3 billion in defense and economic aid annually.

“We understand each other by the eyes,” Mr. Mofaz said, pointing to his own eyes to emphasize that the two allies can communicate with few words.

“We understand very, very quickly the situation and what should be done,” said the defense minister, who is waging war against suicide bombers dispatched from the occupied Palestinian territories to kill Israeli civilians.

It was one of those attacks that provoked Israel to bomb the target 12 miles from Damascus. It came after Islamic Jihad, a radical Palestinian group in Lebanon, claimed credit for a female suicide bomber who killed 19 Israelis in a restaurant in Haifa.

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