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The head of Syria’s newly-founded General Intelligence Service (GIS) was likely the target of a recent bombing in the capital, Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on July 5.
The assassination attempt took the palace in Damascus’ upscale Al Mazzeh neighborhood on June 25, the London-based monitoring group said, adding that intelligence chief Hussein al-Salama survived while many of his bodyguards were severely wounded.
Salama, also known as Abu Musaab al-Shuhayl, was appointed as the head of the GIS by Syria’s Islamist leader Ahmad al-Sharaa on May 3.
Under the command of Sharaa, Salama was a prominent military commander of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the al-Qaeda offshoot that took down the regime of president Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive last December.
“Information indicates that the bombing may be linked to internal conflicts within the regime’s security structure, amid escalating disputes between factions of power and growing talk of a desire to eliminate influential figures seen as potential rivals for influence,” SOHR said in its report.
Following the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, Sharaa dissolved all of Syria’s security apparatus, including the central General Intelligence Directorate. The GIS was founded as a replacement, but as proven by the attempt on Salama’s life the security situation is not improving.
A report released by Lebanon’s L’Orient Today on June 12 revealed that Sharaa himself had escaped at least two assassination attempts since December.
The most recent attempt occurred about two weeks before the report was released, while the first attempt dates back to March.
Citing diplomatic sources, L’Orient Today said that the assassination were attributed to Islamist groups, including ISIS, who blame the Syrian leader for turning his back on “Jihad,” in other words, governing in a way that does not conform to their ideology.
The recent assassination attempts reveal a fragile situation in Syria, where the threat of a power struggle between Islamists within and outside the government is growing.
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it is important for the israelis and americans to “feel safe” with jewlani. there are many surprises waiting in store for them in the syria file
so the mossad chief for syria survived an assassination attempt. interesting.
syria is kaput, it’s over, please don’t talk about syria in 50 years, they need at least four generations to become what they were under bashad al-ashad. also most of the officers would work for the zionist regime. israel won that land and iran russia retreated. turkey could be a target for a coup-detat, if turkey falls so europe and the western empire will take that lands and push to the east.