An explosion occurred last Wednesday in the National Security Headquarters in Damascus, killing some pillars of the Syrian regime including the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s brother in law and the deputy defense Minister and former military intelligence chief Assef Shawkat.
Defense Minister General Daoud Rajha and Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar were also killed in the explosion.
There were rumors that the President’s brother, Maher al- Assad was among the wounded.
There was no official denial of this issue from Syrian authorities, but the Lebanese Hezbollah Television Manar TV claimed that Maher Assad was among the people who attended the funeral ceremony of his brother in law Assef Shawkat, although there were no images of him anywhere present there.
Also, some pro-Hezbollah Lebanese personalities rushed to deny the death of Maher Assad stating that Maher sent the text messages on their mobile phones (!)
Whether this rumor was true or not, it makes one think on those responsible for the explosion and how the explosion occurred.
Two parties had claimed responsibility for the explosion in Damascus: the Islamist rebel group “Liwa al-Islam” and the Free Syrian Army.
The Free Syrian army political speaker claimed that earlier before the blast occurred, the Syrian President’s convoy was targeted in order to get the crisis group (Assef Shawkat- Daoud Rajha- Maher Assad…) to meet.
The blast occurred by putting a series of small explosives under the meeting table, he claimed.
The political speaker added that two people were chosen to perform this task, and they did not know one another.
The speaker also claimed that the general and commander of the Free Syrian army Riad Assaad was in Damascus for 3 days, a month prior to the blast preparing for this operation.
If it was the Free Syrian Army who were responsible for this act, then the Syrian regime probably kept the news of Maher al-Assad’s injury a secret in order to minimize the impact of such a huge hit on the morale of his regime.