Mossad chief quits over failed assassination

General Danny Yatom resigned yesterday as head of Mossad, Israel's external security service, after criticism by a commission investigating a botched attempt to assassinate a Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, in Amman in September, writes Eric Silver in Jerusalem.

It found the operation flawed in conception and planning. "The head of the Mossad bears a heavy responsibility in these matters." A majority report left a decision on Gen Yatom's future to the government, but hinted that he should be dismissed. The Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, declined to dismiss him, but hoped that he would leave in summer after completing two years in the post.

The general's resignation followed a report yesterday of a mutiny among senior Mossad officers.