Who Killed Mohammad Suleiman?



News Analysis

The Syrian President’s “right hand” on security was assassinated. Who killed him and why?


President Assad was in Iran when it happened. (Reuters)

According to a Syrian source for Alsharkalawsat, Mr. Suleiman who was assassinated a few days ago belonged to an exclusive set of high-echelon officials in the Syrian regime who actually held a large amount of state and military secrets. The source also said that Mr. Assad had a lot of confidence in Mr. Sleiman and that Mr. Sleiman’s status was even higher than that of the minister of defense.

According to the source, the assassination was carried out in professional precision by a sniper from the sea’s direction while Mr. Suleiman was sunbathing in the coastal city of Tartous. The circumstances remain vague as non of Syria’s state-controlled-media mentioned it.

The yet-to-be confirmed news has sent a whirlwind of speculations buzzing through the Arab and Israeli media, prompting many theories on why Mr. Suleiman was assassinated and on the significance of the Event.

Here are the theories I found most credible:

1- Mr. Suleiman was killed by the Syrian regime because he knows too much about the coordination between Syria, Iran and North Korea on nuclear programs.

2- Mr. Suleiman was killed by the Iranians to revenge the killing of Imad Mughnieh 6 months ago in Damascus. This theory is especially credible considering the fact that it took place while Mr. Assad was in Tehran.

3- Mr. Suleiman was killed by the Iranians to warn the Syrian regime of getting too cozy with Israel.

4- Mr. Suleiman was killed by the Syrian regime because he’s connected to the Hariri assassination

5- Mr. Suleiman was killed by the Syrian regime as a show of goodwill to Israel, since the officer was rumored to be the liaison between the Syrian regime and Hezbollah.

6- Mr. Suleiman was killed by the Israeli intelligence as a way to put pressure on Mr. Assad to take action with regards to Hezbollah’s armament.

I’d like to know what you think of this. Which of the above theories do you find the most convincing? Why?

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Discussion

23 comments for “Who Killed Mohammad Suleiman?”

  1. Housecleaning! No more no less…the rest are just ‘guesses” to confuse people. The International Tribunal is almost here and all the people involved in the assassinations have bid farewell with their 72 virgins up in terrorist heaven…

    Posted by danny | August 4, 2008, 1:21 pm
  2. this is pointless, the whole thing is shady, so we cant have an intelligent guess or pull assumptions out of our asses.

    the only assumption we can conclude is driven by our bias.

    Posted by Rollen | August 4, 2008, 4:03 pm
  3. He got “fired” from his job.

    Posted by Another Mustapha | August 4, 2008, 4:47 pm
  4. Number 6. I think Isreal is still very annoyed about the Samir Kuntar issue, and will try to get even by hitting hard. I think after July War isreal decided that it will have to execute whoever it can from top commanders becoz they were hard opponents during the war. Plus I don’t think that an iranian or a syrian are good enough of snipers to be able to shoot someone from a boat which would moving with the waves. But then again how can a boat just disappear like that?

    Posted by Ali | August 4, 2008, 4:53 pm
  5. Theories will abound but one thing is certain, the regime in Damascus is in the midst of a power struggle and this cannot bode well for Assad, unless he has the upper hand in all of this and it follows a plan that his thugs have laid out…

    Posted by VOR | August 4, 2008, 5:54 pm
  6. #7. The right hand of God.

    hey, could be.

    Posted by doodad | August 4, 2008, 5:59 pm
  7. Does anyone have a picture of Suleiman? He seems to be a mystery man. Pls. contact me at richards1052 at comcast dot net if you do.

    I think # 6 definitely.

    Posted by Richard Silverstein | August 4, 2008, 8:06 pm
  8. I would like to add three scenarios:

    7-It was odered by the Saudis and executed by the Muslim Brotherhood to weaken the Assad regime.

    8-It was done by the Islamists who are fighting the Alaouis in Tripoli.

    9-It was done by the Syrian opposition like supporters of Abdel Halim Khaddam.

    Posted by Kheireddine | August 4, 2008, 8:39 pm
  9. Since they have discovered water on Mars, therefore life; The aliens did it. Mooooooooooooooo?

    Posted by Marillionlb | August 4, 2008, 11:16 pm
  10. How do you think assad will react if he’s weakened ? If those natgeo’s docs are woth anything, by trying to show that he’s still “the man” - strong, capable and “in control”. So if the mail box, or the rabieh’s papa smurf start making strange sounds on OTV….

    Now, let me join the national sport:
    #16: The guy died from natural causes (i.e., a heart attack) and the syrians will use this fake murder as bargain chips when the time comes.

    #17: He’s not dead. He and Mughnieh are taking some vacation on iran, planing from the shadows.

    – the more theories, the best :)

    Posted by min south amrica | August 5, 2008, 12:25 am
  11. How about a jealous husband or lover? That would be a likely suspect in most murders.

    Posted by PenguinSix | August 5, 2008, 4:03 am
  12. [...] is a great list of possible reasons a top Syrian general was [...]

    Posted by Best Mohammad Suleman assassination conspiracy theories | PenguinSix | August 5, 2008, 4:04 am
  13. Ali, do you really think a Syrian or an Iranian cannot be trained at all to be a sniper ? That really is what you think ? “Plus” as you say, is the sniper HAS to be Iranian or Syrian to work for Iran or Syria ?
    And, again, did you ever heard about stabilization systems ?
    For the rest, we have no clues. Could be any of the above mentioned, I won’t assume anything.

    Posted by Bob | August 5, 2008, 10:31 am
  14. other theory:
    maybe the hisbullah - he was the liaison between syria and HZB so he knew their weak points and regarding the signs of possible coziness between syria and israel the HZB got a little upset…they didnt want to let him live(with all his knowledge about their structures and so on) hence a possible loss of support by the syrians if they would really get into serious peace negotiations with israel

    Posted by just a gess!? | August 5, 2008, 11:17 am
  15. Add another possibility to the growing list of speculations. Suleiman was the Syrian liason man with North Korea and was in charge of securing the al Kibar reactor. At the end it looks like it wasn’t so secure. He probably also helped facilitate the Iranian/ North Korean connection. The bombing of the facility embarrased the North Koreans, for sure. It also highlighted the shortcomings of Iranian technicians in the installation of the Syrian air defense system. Iran also has the same type of system. Plus the Iranians were probably counting on the reactor to eventually provide them with nuclear fuel. Maybe Suleiman was at the receiving end of the Middle Eastern version of corporate shareholder disatisfaction with his performance.

    I don’t want pick any of the theories. Most of them are very credible. I wonder if there will be more “hits” as time passes on. This type of hitman is preferrable to the “normal” local approach of leaving a wide radius of blood known as collateral damage.

    Posted by Bronx-man | August 5, 2008, 12:41 pm
  16. another theories *puts his tin-foil hat on* :

    - the americans, just reminding syria that they still own there asses

    - grumpy the dwarf from snow white

    - afghani’s : still pissed of at the football game they lost a while back against them

    - his wife: called her fat

    or

    blame it on canada

    Posted by Rollen | August 5, 2008, 4:03 pm
  17. #6 There seems to be an Israeli-Jordanian hit team in Syria that is targeting Hizbollah and its Syrian support network.

    This may be hard to believe, but it is probably a lot easier for such a team to operate in Syria than in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut…

    Posted by Gilbert | August 5, 2008, 6:39 pm
  18. #18: He recently discovered he was HIV positive, and got suicided by his wife–firing 4 rounds into his skull for him, from a safe distance, lest she got some of that splatter in her eyeballs.

    Posted by Louis-Noel Harfouche | August 5, 2008, 8:38 pm
  19. I suspect that Mossad carried out this operation. Israel is gearing up for a military strike against Iran. I don’t think there is a timetable in place, but I would put my money on November. The assassination of Suleiman is a warning shot against Syria.

    Posted by Jonathan Derry | August 5, 2008, 11:46 pm
  20. man, i was almost all the way through reading the comments and thought for just a split second, that no one was going to point the finger at the US! i was wrong. i also do believe that the falafel’s gonna hit the hot oil come november…maybe late september.

    Posted by anthem boy | August 6, 2008, 5:20 am
  21. You dumbasses…He Ghazi Kenaaned himself!!

    Posted by danny | August 6, 2008, 10:03 am
  22. If you want to know the real truth of “Who Killed Mohammad Suleiman” you need to do a Google search of the MAY 15th PROPHECY which has declared who is behind it and there is more to come

    Posted by May15thProphecy | August 7, 2008, 6:44 pm
  23. You did a good job searching and pointing to some facts, but you failed to join the big pieces of this puzzle. When you do that you’ll know who killed him.

    Posted by Imad | August 8, 2008, 1:55 pm

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Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.

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