Security sources confirmed today a report from Damascus that an Israeli Druze soldier, reported missing a year ago, is a captive of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, (DFLP), a Damascus-based terrorist group headed by Nayef Hawatmeh.
The soldier was identified as Samir Assad who lived in a Druze village in Galilee. The DFLP disclosed that it was holding Assad only last week. Until then his whereabouts had been unknown. The announcement gave his rank as sergeant and his army serial number. It also contained a statement from the soldiers saying he was well.
Druze leaders in Israel have appealed for his release. He has not yet been visited by a representative of the International Red Cross.
The DFLP, a Marxist-oriented pro-Soviet breakaway group of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was founded in 1969. It has claimed responsibility for Monday’s terrorist attack in downtown Jerusalem in May, 1974 and the terrorist attack on Beit Shean in Novermber, 1974.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
