Sources Confirm The
Assassination of Asef Shawkat, Assad’s Brother-in-Law
kl:11,43 22|05|2012 Saawtalkurd
Top Stories
- SRCC sources confirmed the death of the president’s brother-in-law and the Deputy Chief-of-Staff Asef Shawkat in the Shami hospital in Damascus.
- Leaks claim that Jabhat al-Nosra which adopted the explosions in Deir Azzour, Damascus and Aleppo answer to the Hezbollah cell operating under the command of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence.
- Venezuela announced that it had sent a third shipment to Syria and that it is willing to send more.
Top Videos
- Homs: UN observers accompanied by the deputy-secretary general hold a meeting with the Free Syrian Army
- Maidan, Damascus: Hundreds of protesters join the funeral procession of fallen hero Mahmoud Sukariya and chant slogans condemning the regime’s crimes
- Daraa: Grand funeral of baby girl Ghuna Rashid
- Deir Azzour: Funeral procession of fallen hero Hamad Homsi
Summary of Events
SRCC sources confirmed the death of the Bashar Assad’s brother-in-law and the Deputy Chief-of-Staff Asef Shawkat in the Shami hospital in Damascus. Revolutionaries poisoned the meals of the crisis management command unit tasked with ending the revolution in their latest weekly meeting. No other deaths were confirmed, however, the conditions of the Deputy National Chairman Saed Bkhaitan and Minister of Defence Dawoud Rajha have not stabilized yet.
UN observers visited the neighbourhood of Arfi in the city of Deir Azzour and met with activists and examined regime violations. Meanwhile, another group of observers visited the neighbourhood of Nahar Aisha in the capital to monitor a funeral procession. The observers are carrying on with their duties despite the regime’s violence against their convoys, and the opposition’s disapproval of their inability to protect themselves or the victims of the massacres they are witnessing. Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced that the push for a peaceful resolution in Syria has reached a sensitive phase.
Assad’s forces killed at least 32 today; eight fell in the province of Hama as regime forces shelled and raided the town of Souran and Qastoun where the instigator of the crisis management cell poisoning is believed to hail from, seven in the province of Homs as the Syrian army shelled the cities of Rastan, Tal Kalakh and Qasir, and the neighbourhoods of Deir Baalba, Jobar, and Sultaniya in the city of Homs. Regime forces also executed nine defected soldiers in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
The regime’s violations of the ceasefire agreement continued, as its forces raided the town of Sahwe in the province of Daraa and the town of Aqerbat in the province of Hama amid heavy fire, conducted sweeps in the town of Tayyan in the province of Deir Azzour, and shelled the town of Atareb and Ezaz and the village of Kafar Kermin in the province of Aleppo with tanks and artillery.
Peaceful demonstrations continued across the country. Students protested at the University of Deir Azzour and the Daraa branch of Damascus University.
Leaks claim that Jabhat al-Nosra, which allegedly claimed responsibility for the explosions in Deir Azzour, Damascus and Aleppo, report directly to the Hezbollah cell operating under the command of the Syrian air force intelligence. Most of the members of the faction are mainly composed of Jihadists whose entry to Iraq was facilitated by the Assad regime after the war on Iraq. Many of them were arrested upon returning to Damascus, and most of them were executed in 2008, except for those who struck deals with the regime.
Venezuela announced that it had sent a third oil shipment to Syria and that it is willing to send more. Venezuela also added that it will ignore western sanctions imposed on the Assad regime and will continue its cooperation with Syria.