Hamas recruit: ‘I trained in Syria’

A Hamas recruit imprisoned in Israel says he was trained in Syria. Osama Mattar (pictured) told AP his five weeks of training, which ended in mid-February, went on even as Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas were negotiating the extension of an already existing cease fire. Mattar also said that Syrian intelligence agents knew about — and even visited — the camp located outside Damascus. Syria routinely denies harboring such training camps. Mattar was to train more Hamas recruits in Gaza.