THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and the Syrian defence minister have been killed in a bombing that struck at the heart of the country's security establishment.
State TV said President Assad's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, and Gen Dawoud Rajha, the defence minister were victims of a blast during a high level security meeting. The Interior minister was also injured.
Gen Shawkat was the deputy defense minister and was among the most feared figures in Assad's inner circle. He is married to Assad's elder sister, Bushra.
Reports said the officials had been killed by a bodyguard in a suicide bombing in the capital of Syria but other reports said a device was placed within the building. A "terrorist bomb" which exploded at a national security building in Damascus during a meeting of ministers and security officials wounded several people, some of them critically, state television said.
The state-run news agency SANA reported that Wednesday's blast took place at the National Security building, a headquarters for one of Syria's intelligence branches. Activists in Damascus said by telephone that Republican Guards sealed off the Shami hospital in the capital after ambulances had brought casualties from the site of the explosion. Read on and comment » | Damien McElroy | Wednesday, July 18, 2012
