Retired Syrian officer describes how Eli Cohen was caught and where he may be buried

Centre · 1Retired Syrian officer Said Jawish has given a detailed account of how a Syrian signals unit tracked down the Israeli spy Eli Cohen, in a multipart interview with the Saudi-based magazine Al Majalla; the first installments appeared on 30 September and 1 October. 1 Mixed · 2Cohen lived in Syria under the identity Kamel Amin Thabet between 1962 and 1965, posing as a wealthy Syrian businessman who had returned from abroad; the Jerusalem Post says he presented himself as having returned from years in Argentina. 1 2 Centre · 1According to Jawish, the effort began in 1956, when he intercepted military call signs he identified as Israeli while teaching at the Military Academy in Homs. After his initial proposal was dismissed, he was formally assigned on 30 September 1957, set up listening posts in the Golan Heights and Damascus, and formed Signal Company 134, which came under the army's Signal Corps rather than its intelligence services. 1

Centre · 1Jawish said the unit could record anonymous Morse-code transmissions in five-letter or five-number groups but could not break the encryption. It intercepted the first message later linked to Cohen in 1962, and over three years used Soviet direction-finding equipment to narrow the search from Damascus to a section of the Abu Rummaneh district and then to one residential building. 1 Centre · 1Investigators first suspected a Syrian Airlines pilot of Greek origin whose travel seemed to match gaps in the signals. Using a drug investigation as cover, they searched his apartment and those of a foreign officer and a Turkish diplomat in the same building, found no radio equipment, and drew complaints that led Jawish's commander to close the inquiry. 1 Centre · 1Jawish said he kept working on the case, found a professionally installed antenna on the roof with a coaxial cable running to a fourth-floor apartment registered to Kamel Amin Thabet, and returned the next morning around 7 am. When the transmission began he cut the apartment's electricity three times at an exterior breaker; the interruptions showed up in the recording, confirming the source, and he and two colleagues then forced their way in. 1

Centre · 1Inside, they found a Morse key and radio device in a Kodak film container hidden in a curtain pelmet. Jawish said Cohen then revealed the main transmitter in a green leather document case, and investigators also found frequency crystals, a notebook of daily cipher information and soap-like objects containing explosive detonators. Cohen reportedly said he had used a French edition of The Three Musketeers as a codebook. 1 Mixed · 2Cohen was prosecuted and executed in Damascus on 18 May 1965; the Jerusalem Post describes him as a Mossad agent whose cover was blown in January 1965 and who was publicly hanged. 1 2 Right · 1In a later installment, reported by the Jerusalem Post, Jawish said he and five other Syrian officers debated the night before the execution where to bury Cohen, expecting Israel to try to recover the remains. He said an official named Adnan Tayara proposed the entrance to a military barracks that already had permanent security, so the grave would need no special guarding. 2

Right · 1Jawish said he does not know which of several barracks was chosen, and named Warrant Officer Melhem Qassem, who attended the burial, as the person who knows. The Jerusalem Post presents this as a claim that Cohen may be buried near unidentified barracks outside Damascus. 2 Right · 1The Jerusalem Post adds that Syria has refused to return the remains, which have allegedly been buried multiple times. It also recalls a report from Saudi outlet Al-Hadath nearly a year ago that they could be returned in a deal, after Mossad's seizure of 2,500 documents on Cohen, and a Reuters report that Syria's leadership approved a handover to show goodwill to US President Donald Trump. 2 Centre · 1Anadolu says the Al Majalla series is expected to cover the interrogation, intercepted messages and wider counterintelligence operation in remaining installments, so further details may follow. Jawish's account is his own recollection more than six decades later and is not independently verified in either article. 1