Assad’s brother, Maher, ‘struggling to survive’ after July 18 bombing in Damascus

Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — The brother of President Bashar Assad, the architect of the
regime’s drive to destroy the Sunni revolt, is said to have been severely
injured in the bombing of Syrian intelligence headquarters in July.

Maher Assad.

Arab sources said Maher Assad, commander of the Syrian Army’s 4th
Division, was badly injured in the bombing in which five of the president’s
military and security advisers were killed on July 18.

The sources said Maher, responsible for the counter-insurgency campaign, attended the so-called crisis session in Damascus and was one of 12 people injured.

Maher is said to have lost both of his legs in the bombing of the
National Security Agency. His brother-in-law, Assaf Chawkat, chief of
security, was killed, along with Syria’s defense minister and intelligence director.

“The Syrian regime controls only 30 percent of Syrian territory,” Riyad Hijab, the former Syrian prime minister who defected to Jordan, said on Aug. 14. “It has collapsed militarily, economically and morally.”

[On Aug. 15, the rebel Free Syrian Army said it bombed Syrian military
headquarters in Damascus. FSA said the attack targeted a meeting between the
Syrian Army and the Assad-sponsored Alawite militia called Shabiha.]

Hijab, who fled Syria on Aug. 5, told a news conference in Amman that
the Assad regime was crumbling. The Syrian exile, removed from a
U.S. sanctions list, reported widespread support for the Sunni revolt.

“I assure you — based on my experience and the post that I held — that
the regime has cracked,” Hijab said.

Western intelligence sources said they could not confirm the report on
Maher’s condition. They said Maher, who has not appeared in public in nearly
a month, was believed to have attended the meeting on July 18.

Information on Maher’s condition was relayed to Iran and Russia, the
Arab sources said. They said Saudi Arabia was later told that Assad was no
longer active in the 4th Division.

In an interview with the Saudi daily Al Watan, Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Mikhail Bogdanov confirmed Maher’s injury. Bogdanov was quoted as
saying that Maher was “struggling to survive.” Later, the Russian Foreign
Ministry denied that Bogdanov spoke to the Saudi newspaper.

“Since the bombing in Damascus and the absence of Maher, the military
and security situation is rapidly and dangerously deteriorating,” Bogdanov
was quoted as saying.

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