New details emerge years later on 2008 killing of Assad aide Suleiman

BEIRUT, Lebanon — BEIRUT — Brig. Gen. Mohammad Suleiman, a former adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was killed by gunfire to the head and neck on Aug. 1, 2008, while having dinner at his summer residence on the Tartus coast, according to published accounts. At the time, assailants were reported to have left the area by sea without being detected. In his recently published memoirs, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said an Israeli naval commando unit approached Suleiman's residence from the sea at night and opened fire after receiving authorization to shoot. Suleiman was hit by three bullets to the back of the skull, according to Olmert's account. The Intercept reported in 2015, citing documents leaked by Edward Snowden from the U.S. National Security Agency, that the operation was carried out directly by Israel's Shayetet 13 naval commando unit. Suleiman was known to manage sensitive portfolios for Assad, including Syria's nuclear program, Iranian arms transfers to Hezbollah, and strategic weapons procurement. The assassination came less than a year after Israel struck a nuclear facility in Deir ez-Zour in 2007, and the Syrian government did not issue an official statement on the killing. A U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said Syrian security services considered Israel the prime suspect, citing the use of a long-range sniper and the geography of the coastal residence. The Guardian reported in 2008 that Suleiman may have been killed in an internal power struggle with then-military intelligence chief Assef Shawkat. Eighteen years on, Olmert's memoirs and the leaked U.S. intelligence documents have reinforced assessments attributing the operation to Israel.