Syria - The Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas says one of its members has been assassinated in Damascus.

  Kamal Ghanaja was reportedly shot dead by gunmen who burst into his home in the Syrian capital's northern suburb of Qudsaya earlier this week.

  Hamas has not formally blamed anyone for the killing but one official told the AFP news agency that the Israeli secret service, Mossad, was behind it.

  Israel's defence minister described the accusation as not "necessarily true".

  "He was not really personally familiar [to me]," Ehud Barak told Israeli Army Radio on Thursday.

  "According to all the background published, he was no saint and I don't want to add anything or comment about this incident."