Then came the puzzling incident of 1998, in the hours before the final against France.
Towards the end of the war he had joined up, but he was too confrontational, too much the misfit to suit regimental life, and, following a puzzling incident in Egypt involving the handling of pass books, he was court-martialled and imprisoned.
A day after the raid, Mr Mouallem held friendly talks with his counterpart in London.What makes the raid odder still is that the Syrian authorities have themselves embarked on a nationwide confrontation with al-Qaeda types in Syria, following a string of puzzling incidents.
Various people were to claim to have witnessed a variety of puzzling incidents, such as a phantom coach driven by two headless horsemen, during the next four decades.
"In the absence of any MoD interest in UFO reports," Clarke wrote, "the Airprox Board is the only remaining official body in the UK with a remit to conduct detailed investigations of puzzling incidents like this one, albeit purely with a safety remit".
Much about the incident remains puzzling, including the muted response of Israeli politicians, officials and media.
It said that China blocking Gmail was unlikely to happen "simply over security concerns", and that since Gmail was a technically complex system "there may be some puzzling reasons behind the incident".
No mean multitasker herself, Reichs balances glimpses of Tempe's personal life (notably her on-and-off affair with a sexy Canadian homicide cop) with a number of puzzling cases and some nasty incidents of professional sabotage, starting with the career-damaging charge that Tempe botched the autopsy of a Chicago heiress.
It was a thoughtless and stupid thing to do, which makes this incident all the more puzzling.
Many unanswered questions arose after the 2006 shooting, including the puzzling fact that it took 18 hours for the incident to be reported.
Though it reprimands UNAMID for a lack of reporting, the investigation was limited to reviewing incidents reported internally by the mission during Elbasri's eight-month tenure — a puzzling restriction given the dysfunction that likely predated her appointment.
