Syrian officer who caught spy Eli Cohen tells "Signal 134" story

Retired officer Said Jawish, founder of the Syrian army unit that tracked Eli Cohen’s transmitter, described for the first time how the spy was caught in 1965.

Said Jawish, a retired Syrian officer who founded the army's "Signal Company 134," has described how his unit tracked and caught Israeli spy Eli Cohen, in an interview series published by the Saudi-based Al Majalla.

Israeli spy Eli Cohen (archive)

Jawish said the unit first intercepted Cohen's transmissions in 1962 without knowing who he was. After narrowing the search to a building in Damascus's Abu Rummaneh area, he found an unusual antenna on the roof, read the name "Kamel Amin Thaabet" on the door where its cable entered, and confirmed the source by cutting the power three times during a broadcast.

Eli Cohen at his Damascus residence in 1963 (archive)

Marjeh Square in Damascus (archive)

"I kissed the key," he said of finding a Morse key and transmitter hidden in a curtain box during the 1965 raid. Cohen, who had lived in Damascus under that alias from 1962 to 1965, was hanged in Marjeh Square on May 18, 1965.