An influential relative of Syrian President Bashar Assad, once infamous for smuggling, has been murdered in a dispute over control of a key government stronghold, according to anti-regime activists and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
They said Mohammad Assad was shot dead Friday in Latakia province, the heartland of the president’s Alawite community.
“Mohammad Assad, the son of one of the Syrian president’s cousins, was killed by five bullets to the head in the village of Qardaha,” Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman told AFP.
He said the assassin was as yet unknown, but that the killing was thought to be the result of “a dispute over influence” in Qardaha, the home village of the Assad family.
There was no immediate mention of the death in Syrian state media, while pro-regime Internet media outlets posted Assad’s funeral notice.
Some accounts hinted that he was killed during a recent government push against rebel positions in the mountain town of Dourin.
But anti-regime media outlets maintained that the Observatory’s version of the killing was accurate and named the alleged assailant, who they said ambushed and killed Assad after the two had spent the evening on a drinking binge.
Believed to be in his late 40s, Mohammad Assad gained infamy in the 1980s as one of the founders of the government-linked mafia known as the “shabbiha.” The group prospered by engaging in smuggling and dealing in contraband, protected by its ties with the government.
The regime in turn used the shabbiha to put down political dissent, most notably since the uprising against the government that began in March 2011.
Known as “Sheikh al-Jabal” or “Lord of the Mountain,” Mohammad Assad amassed wealth between 1989 and 1994 from his role in the shabbiha, before going into business in the Qardaha area.
“He made hundreds of millions of Syrian pounds and is considered one of the leading members of the Assad family in Qardaha, with hired thugs in his pay,” Abdel-Rahman said.
The former smuggling kingpin was wounded in 2012 in a dispute with another local resident, giving rise to speculation about whether the conflict was feeding tensions in the pro-government bastion.
The president’s father Hafez was born in Qardaha, and Latakia province remains a stronghold of support for his government.
