Former security prisoner with ties to Iran, Syria killed by IDF

Iran has reportedly been setting up terrorist infrastructure in the Golan Heights near the border with Israel, and Israel is responding by eliminating these operatives.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel killed a former security prisoner who had returned to Syria after serving 12 years in prison and was believed to have had ties to Iran, Syrian media reported Saturday.

Madhat al-Saleh was killed by a sniper along Syria’s border with Israel, facing the Israeli Druze village of Majdal Shams, according to the report.

In the 1980s, al-Saleh was arrested for involvement in terrorist activities against Israel and sentenced to 12 years in prison. After his release he returned to Syria, where he served as a Member of Parliament.

Following news of al-Saleh’s death, the Syrian state news agency explicitly accused Israel of his assassination and reported that “the enemy army shot him in a cowardly move while he was on his way home,” Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

Salah was very close to Syrian President Assad, Channel 12 noted.

In recent months, the Syrian opposition has reported that Iran has been setting up terrorist infrastructure in the Golan Heights near the border with Israel, and Israel is responding by eliminating these operatives.

Saleh is believed to have been an element in Iran’s attempts to build up a military presence on Israel’s northern border, according to TPS, and was therefore assassinated for his ties to Iranian terrorism.

Salah, who was killed on the Syrian side of the border, was arrested in 1985 for involvement in terrorist activities against Israel and sentenced to 12 years in prison after joining the “Syrian Resistance Movement in the Golan Heights.”

Among the offenses attributed to him were reversing the operations of the security forces and burying focal points on military roads. He was also arrested following an attempted abduction of an IDF soldier.

In 1998, after his release, he made his way into Syria and settled there, and in the early 2000s he served for four years as a member of the Syrian parliament. He has since served in Syrian intelligence.

Israel has not commented on the incident.