Israeli forces assassinated top Syrian military official, says leak

Evidence has emerged from leaked US signals intelligence intercepts that Israeli special forces were responsible in 2008 for assassinating a senior Syrian military official who was a close adviser to President Bashar al-Assad.

Brig Gen Mahmoud Suleiman was shot dead on a beach near the northern Syrian port of Tartus in August that year. The Guardian reported at the time that the killing was perpetrated by a sniper firing from a yacht moored offshore.

Israel has never commented publicly on suspicions that it was involved. However, newly revealed secret US intelligence documents state as a fact that Israeli special forces killed the general.

The revelation comes from an internal National Security Agency document provided by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and cited by the Intercept, edited by Glenn Greenwald.

It said a top-secret entry in the NSA’s internal version of Wikipedia, called Intellipedia, described the assassination by “Israeli naval commandos” near Tartus as the “first known instance of Israel targeting a legitimate [Syrian] government official”.

The US embassy in Damascus reported at the time that Israel was the most likely suspect, according to a secret cable released by Wikileaks in 2010.

Iranian media went public with that accusation from the start.

Hizbullah

Suleiman was described by Syrian officials as dealing with defence and security issues in Assad’s private office in Damascus. Israeli and Syrian opposition sources claimed he worked as “liaison” with the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hizbullah, Israel’s sworn enemy.

But a secret US government document several months earlier gave his precise job description: “Syrian special presidential adviser for arms procurement and strategic weapons.”

It was also suggested that he was responsible for security at a Syrian nuclear facility bombed by Israel 11 months earlier.

The Intercept said that, according to three former US intelligence officers with extensive experience in the Middle East, the document’s classification markings indicate that the NSA learned of the assassination through surveillance. The information in the document was labelled “SI,” which means the intelligence was collected by monitoring communications signals.

– (Guardian service)