Two British nationals who participated in a suicide attack on a Tel Aviv pub in early May were recruited and trained by Hamas in Syria, Israeli and Western intelligence officials believe. A new report said more than 20 Hamas operatives were believed to have been sent to Syria for training in weapons, explosives, intelligence, abduction and suicide operations.

The report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said Hamas leaders use their Damascus headquarters to plan major operations against Israel.

The Hamas headquarters in Syria has been a key factor in the upsurge in Islamic suicide bombings against Israeli targets over the last year, the report said.

Hamas, the report said, operates at least two offices in the Damascus area. The Iranian-aligned Islamic Jihad runs one office and the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command operates five offices. The report said other Palestinian groups operate at least 11 other offices in the Syrian capital.

In mid-May, Palestinian sources reported that insurgency groups in Damascus had lowered their profile. The sources said some of the groups will operate out of homes in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital.

Hamas has used its offices in Syria to financing and planning of insurgency operations, a new report says.

The report, authored by Matthew Levitt, said Hamas leaders in Damascus have acknowledged their central role in insurgency operations. Leavitt said Syrian officials urged Hamas and other groups to step up attacks and in May 2002 offered financial aid for a renewal of suicide strikes.

"From their Syrian safe haven, Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal, Mussa Abu Marzouk, Imad Al Alami, and others actively launch terrorist operations," the report said. "Hamas leaders have acknowledged the central role that their group´s Damascus-based ´political´ leaders play in operational decision-making."

The report cited a statement from the late Hamas military commander Salah Shehada in the Gaza Strip. Shehada, who was assassinated last year in an Israeli air attack in Gaza City, had asserted that "the political apparatus is sovereign over the military apparatus, and a decision of the political [echelon] takes precedence over the decision of the military [echelon], without intervening in military operations."

Islamic Jihad has financed virtually all of its insurgency activities from Damascus. The report cited Palestinian documents captured by Israel last year indicating that Islamic Jihad sent $127,000 from Damascus to West Bank families of operatives killed or arrested.

"In fact, the flow of money from Damascus to Jenin was so massive that PIJ [Palestine Islamic Jihad] eventually began funding operations by other groups," the report said. (Copyright © 2003 East West Services, Inc. posted 05/30/03)