by Eli Leon and News Agencies
"On Aug. 1, 2008, a small team of Israeli commandos entered the waters near Tartus, Syria, and shot and killed a Syrian general [Muhammad Suleiman] as he was holding a dinner party at his seaside weekend home," The Intercept website quotes leaked papers.
Shayetet 13 commandos during
a training exercise [Archive]
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Photo credit: Ziv Koren  |
Ever since the mysterious assassination seven
years ago of Syria's Gen. Muhammad Suleiman, a top aide to Syrian
President Bashar Assad, some foreign publications have been attributing
responsibility to Israel. According to newly revealed National Security
Agency documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden and published on
Wednesday on The Intercept website, Israel's naval commando unit,
Shayetet 13, carried out the pinpoint operation.
"On Aug. 1, 2008, a small team of Israeli
commandos entered the waters near Tartus, Syria, and shot and killed a
Syrian general as he was holding a dinner party at his seaside weekend
home," the website said. "Suleiman … was shot in the head and neck, and
the Israeli military team escaped by sea."
Suleiman served as the Syrian regime's liaison
to Iran and Hezbollah and helped Tehran arm and train the Lebanese
Shiite terrorist organization. Additionally, he was reportedly in charge
of the security and construction of Syria's Al Kibar nuclear facility,
which, according to foreign reports, was destroyed by the Israeli Air
Force in a 2007 strike. The NSA document described part of Suleiman's
responsibilities as "sensitive military issues."
Throughout the years, Israel has refused to
comment on reports of its alleged involvement, but the classified
top-secret entry in the NSA's internal version of Wikipedia, called
Intellipedia, represents the first confirmation of American officials
tying Israel to the incident. The document goes on to describe the
assassination as the first known instance of Israel targeting a Syrian
government official.
Three retired American intelligence officers
with experience in the Middle East said the document's "SI"
classification markings indicate that the NSA learned of the
assassination through monitoring communications signals.
"We've had access to Israeli military communications for some time," said one of the former U.S. intelligence officers.
The former officer said knowledge within the
NSA about surveillance of Israeli military units is especially
sensitive, because the NSA has Israeli intelligence officers working
jointly with its officers at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Meanwhile, according to a classified State Department
cable previously published online by WikiLeaks, the Syrian government
investigated the killing and found $80 million in cash in Suleiman's
home. Assad, the cable noted, "was said to be devastated by the
discovery, and, fearing [Suleiman] had betrayed him, redirected the
investigation from solving his murder to finding out how the general had
acquired so much money."
Eli Leon and News Agencies
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=26919
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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