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<title>Muhammad Suleiman</title>

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Muhammad Suleiman

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</style><table class="infobox vcard"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="font-size: 100%;"><div class="fn" style="font-size:125%;">Muhammad Suleiman محمد سليمان</div></th></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="color: #202122; background:lavender">Personal details</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Born</th><td class="infobox-data">1959 <a href="Tartus" title="Tartus">Tartus</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Died</th><td class="infobox-data">1 August 2008(2008-08-01) (aged 48–49) <a href="Tartus" title="Tartus">Tartus</a>, <a href="Syria" title="Syria">Syria</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Nationality</th><td class="infobox-data">Syrian</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Political party</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Arab_Socialist_Ba'ath_Party_%E2%80%93_Syria_Region" title="Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region">Syrian Regional Branch</a> of the <a href="Ba'ath_Party_(Syrian-dominated_faction)" title="Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction)">Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Occupation</th><td class="infobox-data">National Security Adviser to the President</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="color: #202122; background:lavender">Military service</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Allegiance</th><td class="infobox-data"> <a href="Syria" title="Syria">Syria</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Branch/service</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Syrian_Arab_Army" class="mw-redirect" title="Syrian Arab Army">Syrian Arab Army</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Years of service</th><td class="infobox-data">1985–2008</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Rank</th><td class="infobox-data"> <a href="Brigadier_General" class="mw-redirect" title="Brigadier General">Brigadier General</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-below" style="border-top: 1px solid right;"><div></div></td></tr></tbody></table>

Muhammad Suleiman (<a href="Arabic_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabic language">Arabic</a>: محمد سليمان; 1959 – 1 August 2008) was a Syrian <a href="Military_ranks_of_Syria" title="Military ranks of Syria">Brigadier General</a> and Special Presidential Advisor for Arms Procurement and Strategic Weapons to President <a href="Bashar_al-Assad" title="Bashar al-Assad">Bashar al-Assad</a>.<a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a><a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a>

He was killed in <a href="Tartus" title="Tartus">Tartus</a>, Syria on 1 August 2008 in an <a href="Israel" title="Israel">Israeli</a> special forces operation.<a href="#cite_note-firstlook-3">[3]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Early_life">Early life</h2></div>

Suleiman was born in 1959 to a rich aristocratic <a href="Alawites" title="Alawites">Alawite</a> family from <a href="Duraykish" title="Duraykish">Duraykish</a>.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Career">Career</h2></div>

In 1985, he graduated from the College of <a href="Mechanical_Engineering" class="mw-redirect" title="Mechanical Engineering">Mechanical Engineering</a> at <a href="University_of_Damascus" class="mw-redirect" title="University of Damascus">University of Damascus</a>. After his graduation, he joined the course of a leadership engineer at the Military College and graduated with the rank of Captain engineer, had three children. He was one of the first to excel in the Military College, which made it easy for him to get close to <a href="Bassel_al-Assad" title="Bassel al-Assad">Bassel al-Assad</a> at the time, and then he was appointed as a leading engineer officer in the <a href="Republican_Guard_(Syria)" title="Republican Guard (Syria)">Syrian Republican Guard</a> in the battalion that was headed by <a href="Bassel_al-Assad" title="Bassel al-Assad">Bassel al-Assad</a>.<a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a>

He was sent to <a href="Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a> to develop a tank weapon for the <a href="Republican_Guard_(Syria)" title="Republican Guard (Syria)">Syrian Republican Guard</a> and obtained a master’s degree, then doctorate in developing artillery weapons. After his return in 1990, he assumed the position of director of Colonel Bassel al-Assad’s office and his special advisor for military affairs. He was a member of the Special Military Committee for the Armaments Department, which is responsible for purchasing and developing weapons.

In 1994, <a href="Bashar_al-Assad" title="Bashar al-Assad">Bashar al-Assad</a> received the 41st Brigade of the Republican Guard after the death of Bassel al-Assad in a traffic accident. Brigadier General Suleiman assumed the position of director of Bashar al-Assad’s private office. He began managing Bashar al-Assad's special operations room, which is related to the transfer and demobilization of officers and following up on army and security affairs. He established a special office in coordination with the Information Office of the Republican Palace to follow up on the internal situation and everything related to ministries and party institutions. During the death of the late Syrian President <a href="Hafez_al-Assad" title="Hafez al-Assad">Hafez al-Assad</a> in 2000, Suleiman was the head of the operations room that ran the security services.

Former Director General of <a href="Mossad" title="Mossad">Mossad</a> <a href="Meir_Dagan" title="Meir Dagan">Meir Dagan</a> used to refer to him as the "Commander of the Shadow Army". Israel's <a href="Military_Intelligence_Directorate_(Israel)" title="Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel)">Military Intelligence AMAN</a> believed he had "extraordinary organizational and logistical abilities". He was also in charge of highly classified military and intelligence work, such as handling relations with the IAEA and the construction of the nuclear <a href="Al_Kibar" class="mw-redirect" title="Al Kibar">Al Kibar</a> facility. He handled secretive intelligence affairs for the president and was reportedly also in charge of arms transfers from Syria to <a href="Hezbollah" title="Hezbollah">Hezbollah</a> and <a href="Hamas" title="Hamas">Hamas</a> in neighbouring Lebanon and Gaza. He had also built very close ties with Hezbollah's chief of staff <a href="Imad_Mughniyeh" title="Imad Mughniyeh">Imad Mughniyeh</a> and Iranian General <a href="Qasem_Soleimani" title="Qasem Soleimani">Qasem Soleimani</a>.<a href="#cite_note-time-5">[5]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Assassination_and_perpetrators">Assassination and perpetrators</h2></div>

It was reported by Iranian media that Suleiman was shot by a silenced weapon in the head and neck on a beach at al-Rimal al-Zahabiyeh resort near <a href="Tartus" title="Tartus">Tartus</a> on 1 August 2008.<a href="#cite_note-hugh-6">[6]</a> According to the <a href="As-Safir" title="As-Safir">As-Safir</a> newspaper, arrested Mossad spy <a href="Ali_Jarrah" title="Ali Jarrah">Ali Jarrah</a> "testified to have scouted 'certain points' in the coastal town of Tartus in northern Syria," where Suleiman was assassinated.<a href="#cite_note-7">[7]</a> <a href="The_Sunday_Times" title="The Sunday Times">The Sunday Times</a> reported that Suleiman was assassinated by <a href="Israeli_Special_Forces" class="mw-redirect" title="Israeli Special Forces">Israeli Special Forces</a>.<a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a>

A <a href="United_States_diplomatic_cables_leak" title="United States diplomatic cables leak">leaked diplomatic cable</a> revealed that France told the United States that Suleiman was probably killed as a result of political rivalry within the Syrian government. <a href="Maher_al-Assad" title="Maher al-Assad">Maher al-Assad</a>, brother of the Syrian president, was likely to have ordered the killing.<a href="#cite_note-wikileaks-9">[9]</a> Furthermore, France said that Suleiman was not killed by a sniper, but in fact gunned down in his car.<a href="#cite_note-wikileaks-9">[9]</a>

In a 2009 article regarding the destruction of Al Kibar, <a href="Der_Spiegel" title="Der Spiegel">Der Spiegel</a> gives a detailed description of Suleiman's assassination as having taken place by sniper shots from a passing yacht and implies that it was linked to his direct involvement in the construction the Al Kibar Nuclear facility and strong ties to <a href="Hezbollah" title="Hezbollah">Hezbollah</a> and Iran.<a href="#cite_note-10">[10]</a>

In 2015, a <a href="National_Security_Agency" title="National Security Agency">National Security Agency</a> document leaked by <a href="Edward_Snowden" title="Edward Snowden">Edward Snowden</a> revealed that Israel was indeed directly behind Suleiman's killing. According to the document, the assassination was carried out by the <a href="Shayetet_13" title="Shayetet 13">Shayetet 13</a> naval commando unit.<a href="#cite_note-firstlook-3">[3]</a>

According to a book by <a href="Michael_Bar-Zohar" title="Michael Bar-Zohar">Michael Bar-Zohar</a> and Nissim Mishal, Suleiman was assassinated by two Shayetet 13 snipers who had dived to the beach that his villa overlooked from a boat about a mile offshore. The two commandos, whose guns were fitted with silencers, shot him simultaneously after an electronic signal beeped in their earphones, then withdrew.<a href="#cite_note-11">[11]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Funeral">Funeral</h2></div>

Suleiman was buried on 3 August 2008.<a href="#cite_note-hugh-6">[6]</a> The funeral was attended by <a href="Maher_al-Assad" title="Maher al-Assad">Maher al-Assad</a> and <a href="Assef_Shawkat" title="Assef Shawkat">Assef Shawkat</a>.<a href="#cite_note-hugh-6">[6]</a>

The New Yorker quoted an unnamed former Israeli official: "There was no funeral, no event. Nothing. They never admitted that he was killed. He just disappeared".

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Aftermath">Aftermath</h2></div>

According to a U.S. State Department <a href="United_States_diplomatic_cables_leak" title="United States diplomatic cables leak">cable published by WikiLeaks</a>, Syrian authorities found $80 million in cash in the basement of Suleiman's home. This reportedly upset President Assad, who launched an investigation into how Suleiman obtained that much money.<a href="#cite_note-13">[13]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/100578">"US embassy cables: US sought financial pressure on top Syrian officials"</a>. The Guardian. London. 20 December 2010.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-hugh-6">^ <a href="#cite_ref-hugh_6-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-hugh_6-1">b</a> <a href="#cite_ref-hugh_6-2">c</a> <cite id="CITEREFHugh_MacleodIan_Black2008" class="citation news cs1">Hugh Macleod; Ian Black (5 August 2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/aug/05/syria.lebanon">"Top Assad aide assassinated at Syrian resort"</a>. The Guardian. Beirut. Retrieved 15 January 2013.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-7"><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a> <cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=97688">"Spy for Israel 'admits' scouting Mughniyeh hit site"</a>. The Daily Star. 14 November 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2013.</cite>

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