Islamic Jihad members were trained in Iran, Israeli security agencies have learned after interrogating members of the Islamic faction.
Read more:
Basal Mahdi, a commander in the Islamic Jihad who was arrested by Israeli security forces in Gaza last month, told interrogators that he had gone to Iran where he and other operatives participated in training given by soldiers of the Iranian military.
2 View gallery
Captured Islamic Jihad operative tells interrogators he received military training in Iran
(Photo: Shin Bet)
He said the training was conducted in groups of 15 to 20 and included members of the terror group from Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.
"My commander called me and said I had to leave for a sharpshooter's course in Iran that would be useful for me," he said. "I traveled from Gaza to Egypt where I remained for two weeks and from there I went to Syria for a few days and then to Lebanon. Two weeks later, we returned to Syria and from there we traveled to Iran."
The course, he said lasted 15 days and included physical drills and shooting with various types of weapons: Four days on AK-47s shooting to a distance of 100 meters (nearly 110 yards) then five days of shooting up to 150 meters (nearly 165 yards) and then six days on the 7.62 mm Dragunov sniper rifle. "We practiced shooting at stones, targets, balloons from a distance of 300 meters (nearly 329 yards)," he said.
Mahdi said others who were with him had trained on more complex weapons. "There are operatives who received training in rocket and artillery fire in Iran," he said in his interrogation.