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A killing war between Israel's Mossad and Islamic fanatics came closer this weekend in Britain.

The Israeli intelligence agency has sent four members of its kidon assassination squad to this country, to join fifteen other handpicked katsas, its relentless field agents.

Their brief is to "disable" any of the "close to 50" British Muslims that the extremist Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun, last week boasted were ready to carry out suicide missions similar to the one in Tel Aviv.

Al-Muhajiroun spokesman, Asif Butt, said the 50 were "primed and ready to go".

The threat was sufficient for Mossad to send its own termination squad to head off any further threat to Israel or to synagogues and other Jewish institutions in this country.

"In Mossad-speak 'disable' means taking them out permanently", said an MI5 source grimly.  "We know from past experience that the kidon can make murder look like an accident.  It is their speciality".

Two of the kidon are women.  They have been trained to be ready to sleep with someone to obtain vital information.

Former Mossad chief Meir Amit said that "sex is a woman's weapon.  Pillow talk is not a problem for her.  But it takes a special kind of courage - to sleep with the enemy".

Mossad often operates outside the law of this country - or any country. 

In the past, it has killed terrorists in the streets of Paris, Frankfurt and other European cities.  In turn, it has lost over 100 agents in the past 50 years.  Their memorial is a monument shaped like a human brain in a suburb of Tel Aviv.

In Britain, they are banned from using guns or explosives.  But they are equipped with long and short-blade knives and piano wire to strangle.  They are also trained in the art of melting into a hostile community.

Some of the team have spent time undercover in Arab capitals. 

They speak all the languages of the Middle East - and can pass as Islamic extremists to get close to the fanatics they have come to hunt down in Britain.

Israel has openly made it clear it fears Britain has become a haven for extremist preachers and their network of organisations dedicated to sowing hatred.  They cite how terrorists have been able to hire expensive lawyers to fight extradition. 

For years Khalid Fawwaz, wanted in the US for his alleged role in the bombing of the American embassy in Kenya, has used the courts in Britain for the past four years to avoid extradition.  The expense of his fight has cost the taxpayer £428,000.

Israel accepts that the majority of this country's 1.8 Muslims are law abiding.  But it says that since the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, there has been an increase in extremists entering Britain under the guise of asylum seekers.

The attack by two British suicide bombers in Tel Aviv has led to Mossad being ordered to "carry the war to our enemies", said a senior Israeli intelligence source.

The Mossad team in Britain know their actions are sanctioned by their government.

Rafi Eitan, a former director of operations, said: "we are like the official hangman or the doctor on Death Row who administers the lethal injection.  We are simply fulfilling a sentence sanctioned by the prime minister of the day".

Since he has come to office, it is known that Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has "sanctioned" a number of assassinations of terrorists who could not be brought before Israeli courts.

Victor Ostrovsky, a former member of the assassination team said that kidon always use a weapon appropriate to the situation. 

"Strangulation if the target is to be killed at night.  Sometimes an aerosol or a syringe in the jugular to deliver a fast-acting nerve agent that kills and leaves no trace".

The decision to send in the Mossad came after urgent discussions between Ariel Sharon and Downing Street last weekend.  Later, Mossad's new hardman chief, Meir Dagan, called Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of MI5, and told her that his men would co-operate closely with her agents.

Next day, katsas from Mossad headquarters in Brussels had flown into Heathrow.  Twenty-four hours later, the four-man kidon had arrived on an El Al flight from Israel.  Supporting them are Mossad yahalomin - specialists at bugging phones and buildings.

Their targets include a Leicester-based charity, Interpal.  It has been accused of fund-raising for Hamas and is currently under investigation by the Charity Commissioners.  Interpal insists its fund-raising is "purely humanitarian".

Although the Home Office has officially banned 20 terror groups, Mossad believes many are still operating behind Islamic front organisations.

The deployment of such a massive Mossad team is the first time it has operated in such numbers in this country since 1987.

That year, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ordered their operations to be shut down after a "honey pot" operation to kidnap Mordechai Vananu, the whistleblower who revealed secrets about Israel's nuclear arsenal.  He fled to London.

Mossad traced him and a woman agent enticed Vananu - on the promise of sex - to go with her to Rome.  A Mossad team was waiting there to drug and spirit Vananu back to Israel.  He is still serving a life sentence.

Now, united in common cause, Mossad and MI5 are burrowing deep into the closed world of Islamic fundamentalism in this country.

Former operations chief Rafi Eitan, who has worked secretly in Britain said: "there has always been a love-hate relationship with British intelligence.  But after the suicide bomber attack last week, that is over".

Nevertheless, the Mossad team will virtually operate on its own rules.

"The one rule which overrides all others is: kill or be killed.  That is why the kidon are here.  They can make an assassination look like the perfect accident", said an Israeli intelligence source.

SIDEBAR:

Mossad.  Israel's prime intelligence service.  Formally known as Mossad le Aliyah Beth.  Employs some 1,500 full-time staff.  Less than 100 are field agents.  But has an estimated one million informers within the Jewish Diaspora.

Kidon.  Mossad's state-backed assassination team.  Based in the Negev Desert.  Current strength said to be 48, six of them women.  All are in their late twenties and superbly fit.  Usually work in teams of four. 

Their successes

Dr Gerald Bull.  Canadian scientist and then the world's greatest expert of ballistics.  Offered his services to Saddam Hussein.  On March 22, 1990, a kidon team assassinated Bull in the doorway of his Brussels apartment.  Mossad's Department of Psychological Warfare planted the story that Bull had been murdered Iraqi agents because he reneged on his deal with Saddam.

 Faithi Shkaki.  Head of Islamic Jihad in 1995.  Returning from Libya, a kidon unit were waiting for him in Malta.  As he went shopping for presents for his wife and children back in Damascus, kidon struck.  Shkaki was shot six times in the head as he emerged from a shop with his wrapped gifts.  The kidon escaped undetected.

 Ali Hassan Salameh.  Known as "The Red Prince".  The man behind the Munich massacre of the Israeli athletes in 1972.  Hid for years in West Beirut until the day a kidon team, one a woman, placed a car bomb on his route to work.  He was blown to bits.

and failures.

 Yasser Arafat.  On six separate occasions, Mossad tried to assassinate the PLO leader in Lebanon and Tunisia.  Each time Arafat escaped at the last moment.  There was a suspicion in Mossad that a mole had leaked their plans.  But it was never proven.

Khalid Meshel.  Fanatical Hamas leader.  Lived near King Hussein's palace in Amman, Jordan.  Father of seven children.  In September, 1997, a kidon team tried to inject him on a street with a new lethal nerve agent.  They failed.  The uproar led to an international outcry.  The kidon returned to Israel but were transferred to border patrol work.