Israeli Reports: Cohen’s Remains are in Cave Near Syria’s Qardaha

Israeli spy Eli Cohen. (AFP)
Israeli spy Eli Cohen. (AFP)
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Israeli Reports: Cohen’s Remains are in Cave Near Syria’s Qardaha

Israeli spy Eli Cohen. (AFP)
Israeli spy Eli Cohen. (AFP)

The remains of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who was executed in Damascus in 1965, were buried in a mountain cave near the city of Qardaha in the Latakia province, the birthplace of head of the Syrian regime Bashar Assad, reported the Israeli Maariv daily Friday.

The newspaper said the information was delivered by an Arab source, who spoke with a high-ranking official from the Assad regime.

“In 1977, late former President Hafez Assad ordered the transfer of the body of Cohen from where it was buried to another place, after the Israeli intelligence Mossad agency carried out a serious attempt to search for his remains in several graves in the Syrian territories,” the Syrian official told the Arab source, according to Maariv.

The official said that in 1977, a Mossad team had reached Damascus and started digging up the graves, but failed to discover the whereabouts of Cohen’s body.

“The Israeli army sparked a battle with the Syrian military on the Jordanian-Syrian border to cover up the Mossad’s activities in Damascus,” the official revealed.

He added that at that time, Hafez Assad ordered that Cohen’s body be transferred to a “safe area”, tasking the secret mission to three of his loyal soldiers, who had served in the Presidential Guards.

“Two of the soldiers passed away, while the third is now in his eighties,” the source said.

He explained that in addition to the three soldiers, two persons knew about the mission: Former Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass and Syrian General Mohammed Suleiman, a key aide to Assad and a liaison officer with the Lebanese Hezbollah party. Suleiman was assassinated in Syria’s Tartus in 2008.

Earlier this week, the Israeli Jerusalem Post daily claimed that Cohen’s remains were being transferred from Syria to Israel.

Later, several Israeli media reports said a Russian delegation left Syria with a coffin containing the remains.

The Russian Foreign Ministry put out a statement Wednesday "resolutely refuting" the claim, which it described as a "provocation." It urged the Israeli media to show a more "accurate, professional and honest approach to coverage of such sensitive issues."

Cohen infiltrated the top echelons of Syria's leadership in the early 1960s and obtained top-secret intelligence before he was caught and publicly executed in 1965.



Drone Attack Halts Oil Output at Sarsang Field in Iraqi Kurdistan

An oil field in Dibis area on the outskirts of Kirkuk, Iraq (File Photo: Reuters)
An oil field in Dibis area on the outskirts of Kirkuk, Iraq (File Photo: Reuters)
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Drone Attack Halts Oil Output at Sarsang Field in Iraqi Kurdistan

An oil field in Dibis area on the outskirts of Kirkuk, Iraq (File Photo: Reuters)
An oil field in Dibis area on the outskirts of Kirkuk, Iraq (File Photo: Reuters)

A drone attack halted production at the Sarsang oilfield in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on Tuesday only hours before its US operator signed a deal to develop another field.

The Sarsang field is operated by HKN Energy, a privately held US oil and gas company active in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and owned by Hillwood Energy, part of the Hillwood group founded by Ross Perot Jr.

Two hours after the morning attack, HKN Vice President Matthew Zais was in Baghdad with Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani to sign a preliminary agreement to develop the Himreen oilfield in northern Iraq, the oil ministry said, Reuters reported.

The signing ceremony was also attended by US Ambassador Steven Fagin, whose embassy condemned the drone attacks on oil infrastructure in the Kurdistan region and urged the Iraqi government to investigate and hold those responsible accountable.

Washington said such attacks undermine Iraq’s sovereignty and efforts to attract foreign investment.

Production at the Sarsang field was halted as a precautionary measure after an explosion, two engineers told Reuters.

Kurdistan regional authorities confirmed that the blast was from a drone attack.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Iraqi Kurdistan security sources said that initial investigations suggested that the drone came from areas under the control of Iran-backed militias.

Heavy plumes of smoke were seen rising from the Sarsang field in the Dohuk region of northern Iraq, said one oil engineer at the field.

Field operator HKN said that the halt to production was to allow firefighters to extinguish the fire, later adding that emergency response teams contained the damage.

There were no casualties, Iraqi Kurdistan's ministry of natural resources and HKN said.

The incident is under investigation and a full assessment of the damage has been initiated, the company said without providing further detail on the cause of the explosion.

On Monday two drones fell on the Khurmala oilfield near Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, damaging the water pipes at the field.