Syrian intelligence service thwarts assassination attempt against Syrian President

The Jordanian special services have revealed an assassination attempt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Lebanese Addiyar Newspaper reported today. Relevant information was given to the Syrian intelligence service in due time, which enabled the latter to destroy the plotters’ plans, Rosbalt reported.

Militants planned to use the mobile anti-aircraft systems they had received from Qatar for hitting Assad’s plane with the help of a surface –to- air missile on its way to Latakia Airport, the Addiyar Newspaper says.

It turned out that 2 technical workers from the Mezza military airfield near Damascus from where the airliner of the Syrian President was due to take off were involved in the above-mentioned plot. According to the Lebanese newspaper, among the master minders of an attack on the airliner of the Syrian President were the militants of the radical Islamist group Jebhat al-Nusra and the Syrian anti-aircraft gunners who deserted from the Syrian army and whom radical Islamists attracted to their side. The firing should have started after Assad’s plane’s going down to the height of 50 metres.

The information to the effect that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has started to spend his days off on the beach came in from sources in Latakia, where the other participants of the plot were operating. The airliner of the Syrian President took off as was planned but immediately landed, the Lebanese newspaper said. The whole group consisting of 3 persons was spotted and immediately neutralized.

The Addiyar Newspaper believes that the Qatari and Turkish special services are behind the planned assassination attempt against the Syrian President. “Failing to win a military and diplomatic victory over Assad, official Doha and official Ankara decided to physically eliminate him”, the Lebanese newspaper says.

Neither the official sources in Damascus nor government media have given their commentaries yet over the information published by the Addiyar Newspaper.