Posted on 08/05/2008 5:33:08 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Syrian general's killing severs Hezbollah links
James Hider, Middle East Correspondent
The mysterious killing last week of a top Syrian general and key aide to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, has sparked intense speculation about internal feuding within the regime’s intelligence apparatus.
Syria is at a critical juncture as it pursues indirect peace talks with Israel and a closer relationship with the West, while attempting to maintain its long-standing regional alliances with Iran and the militant Shia Hezbollah of Lebanon.
General Mohammed Suleiman, one of Mr Assad’s closest confidantes, was shot dead on Friday at his chalet in the prestigious Rimal al-Zahabieh, Arabic for “Golden Sands”, seafront resort, 9 miles north of Tartous on the Mediterranean coast. A sniper, apparently located out at sea, shot him in the head, neck and stomach and he was pronounced dead at a hospital in Tartous.
Assassinations of leading regime figures are rare in Syria, and the Syrian authorities have scrambled to prevent news of the incident from leaking. Adding to the whirlwind of speculation is that General Suleiman was an Alawite, the same religious sect to which the Assad family belongs and which forms the backbone of the nominally secular regime in Damascus.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
This is quite interesting.
Damn, that would have been a tough shot from a moving boat,
even a frogman in the surf would have a hard time.
No amateurs pulled this off.
Ping!
Dang, hit him three times too.
/bkmark
This does not pass the sniff test.
A sniper at sea? Come on. Even the littlest wave would mess up your shot. And three times hitting him?
The only way that could happen is if you unloaded a machine gun for 30 seconds.
Nice catch.
Either it was not from a sniper at sea, or the sniper has some serious gyro-stabilized platform (which is not impossible, but is more high tech than I would have expected).
Then again, a loaded freighter in a calm harbor might just be stable enough
Plus a boat would be a slow get away with no place to hide.
I used to do some shooting from a ship in VN..and it was pretty hard even with a big ship under you. M14..the guys were better with the 40mm.
If it was an inside job they would need to try to say the shots came from offshore to deflect from the fact that the hit was in a secure area. The most likely candidate for someone in close and on the ground would have been part of their own intel/security apparatus.
So ya, say “oh noez it must have been a guy in a zodiac...that’s the ticket”.
add “or armed forces” to “part of their own intel/security apparatus.”
Then again, a loaded freighter in a calm harbor might just be stable enough
I'm not very familiar with the Syrian coast so if there is a gentle harbor, that would be new information to me.
I'm no skilled sniper, but I am a deer hunter. It's hard enough to draw a steady bead from a solid stand 150 yards away.
As reported, this couldn't have been closer than 1000 yards, and probably at least twice that. Three kill shots from a floating platform is beyond Olympic Gold performance, bordering on the miraculous.
Very interesting — bump!
Mughniyeh was killed on Iran’s orders to prevent him falling into our Special Forces “away team” clutches. They were within four hours of nabbing him.
I imagine that our peops and Israeli ones could lay their hands on “serious gyro-stabilization” ??
Caliber Report please?
On a boat? That explains the 3 shots instead of 1.It could be that one shot also went over his head. Hunting seals of the coast of Newfoundland on the ice from boats, using .22 rifles, going for the eye shot, rifle on the gunnel ( gunwale), one learns to squeeze at just the right moment.
Squeezing as the boat reaches its end of reverse roll at sea and continuing to fire as the gunnel rolls down is why there were 3 shots.If it was over 500 yards, thats some fine shooting. The rifle was likely set to fire a burst of three rounds with one trigger squeeze, auto fire.
Or there were 3 shooters.
Who was on the grassy knoll?.....( LOL sorry had to.)
I would have to guess that the Mossad sponsored that shooting match.
We should have more in this country like it, shooting at targets from a boat 300 yards of shore sounds like a bit of fun.
For some reason we don't equate boats and rifles, just boats and shotguns! LOL.
Beat me to it.
I'm a marksman, and I seriously do not believe that you could snipe anyone from a spot on the ocean unless you were on a gyroscopic stabilized firing platform.
Not many of those in the world...
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