On Monday, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported that one civilian was “martyred” when an IED planted in his car went off as he was moving in the al-Qadam neighborhood of Damascus. The bomb claimed the life of the driver, Hezbollah agent Mashur Zidan, destroyed the car, and caused damage to nearby homes and shops.
That’s a big bomb.
On Wednesday morning, Haaretz reported that Zidan, who lived in the Druze village of Hader in the Syrian Golan Heights, was part of Hezbollah’s “Golan Portfolio” project to establish a military infrastructure along the Golan Heights border with Israel. Zidan was responsible, among other things, for recruiting volunteers from villages near the border with Israel, to gather intelligence about IDF movements in the north, and hide in their homes explosive devices, light weapons, machine guns and anti-tank missiles, for a future war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Ha’aretz quoted reports from Syria that Zidan had visited Lebanon several times, changing identities in the crossings between the two countries. Four months ago, after information about the “Golan Portfolio” project was published by the IDF, He was invited to visit Lebanon again and returned to Syria only recently.
On Sunday night, Syrian state media reported that Israel attacked military bases in the south of the country, near the strategic town of Al-Harrah. The core of the Golan Portfolio project is believed to be in that area.