Report Syria Was Involved in a Terrorist Attempt Against Israel

— Israeli security circles said today that Syrian authorities were deeply involved in all aspects of a terrorist attempt to infiltrate Israel by gliders last month to carry out sabotage missions. Details were supplied by the two terrorists captured after their glider crash-landed in Israel–one a Syrian and the other a Turk.

Under interrogation, the terrorists indicated that the Syrians spared no effort to provide logistical assistance for the mission. They established a special base for the purpose south of Homs in southwestern Syria, provided the terrorists with gliding instructors from their own commando units and placed Syrian army technicians in charge of maintaining the gliders and balloons which were also placed at the disposal of the terrorists.

The Syrians appointed special liaison officers and made a point of operational coordination between the gliders and the Syrian Air Force, the security circles said. Intelligence officers and Air Force officers frequently visited the base and followed the training closely. The captured terrorists also claimed that their base was visited occasionally by Soviet officers dressed as civilians but escorted by senior officers of the terrorist organization conducting the mission, known as the Liberation Front.

The security circles said that interrogation of the terrorists revealed that the Liberation Front became in fact an arm of Syrian intelligence and that the Syrians wanted to use it against Arab elements and Palestinians unpopular in Damascus as well as against Israel.

The terrorists said they were assured by the Syrians they were not being sent on a suicide mission but that they soon realized they would not be able to return to Syria.