"On Aug. 1, 2008, a small team of Israeli commandos entered the waters near Tartus, Syria, and shot and killed a Syrian general [Muhammad Suleiman] as he was holding a dinner party at his seaside weekend home," The Intercept website quotes leaked papers.
Ever since the mysterious assassination seven years ago of Syria's Gen. Muhammad Suleiman, a top aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad, some foreign publications have been attributing responsibility to Israel. According to newly revealed National Security Agency documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden and published on Wednesday on The Intercept website, Israel's naval commando unit, Shayetet 13, carried out the pinpoint operation.
"On Aug. 1, 2008, a small team of Israeli commandos entered the waters near Tartus, Syria, and shot and killed a Syrian general as he was holding a dinner party at his seaside weekend home," the website said. "Suleiman … was shot in the head and neck, and the Israeli military team escaped by sea."
Suleiman served as the Syrian regime's liaison to Iran and Hezbollah and helped Tehran arm and train the Lebanese Shiite terrorist organization. Additionally, he was reportedly in charge of the security and construction of Syria's Al Kibar nuclear facility, which, according to foreign reports, was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force in a 2007 strike. The NSA document described part of Suleiman's responsibilities as "sensitive military issues."
Throughout the years, Israel has refused to comment on reports of its alleged involvement, but the classified top-secret entry in the NSA's internal version of Wikipedia, called Intellipedia, represents the first confirmation of American officials tying Israel to the incident. The document goes on to describe the assassination as the first known instance of Israel targeting a Syrian government official.
Three retired American intelligence officers with experience in the Middle East said the document's "SI" classification markings indicate that the NSA learned of the assassination through monitoring communications signals.
"We've had access to Israeli military communications for some time," said one of the former U.S. intelligence officers.
The former officer said knowledge within the NSA about surveillance of Israeli military units is especially sensitive, because the NSA has Israeli intelligence officers working jointly with its officers at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Meanwhile, according to a classified State Department cable previously published online by WikiLeaks, the Syrian government investigated the killing and found $80 million in cash in Suleiman's home. Assad, the cable noted, "was said to be devastated by the discovery, and, fearing [Suleiman] had betrayed him, redirected the investigation from solving his murder to finding out how the general had acquired so much money."
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