The reputation of the man was absolutely horrendous and most Alawites believe that the damage people like him did to the image of ordinary Alawites was extensive, I do not know how he died but I know for sure that no tears will be shed over his departure except from those who will lose their “jobs” after his death.

It is probably good for president Assad to be not associated with such people.

He was a bad person, a smuggler no more no less….

I like it when the article mentioned that he bought himself a doctorate….

time ago other family member of Assad was killed in a Battle, he was announced in the Syrian TV, because he was known that he was fighting, apparently he had also a good fame and reputation, otherwise they wouldn’t announce him, so they were sure not to get sham from him.
But this one what you call “Shaykh al-Jabal” if he isn’t inherited this name from his Grands, he should only be a Bandit, to call himself “Shaykh al-Jabal” that’s to make from himself dominant on some area, yes some of Assad family had practice some bad and smuggle work, and corruption, but that was finished in the 80’s.
Not to defend Assad reputation self, but his Father was always punishing them. I lived the time my self.
Any way this Muhammad al-Assad, a.k.a. “Shaykh al-Jabal”, had definitely a bad reputation, and he wasn’t killed in a battle, that is why the Syrian TV does not announce his death in any way, apparently because they know that if they do, people from the Government side self will argue that, and will not accept to declare him as a Martyr.
Conclusion; some locales made this Na’wa putting him as Martyr

From what we learned in school in the Middle East:

A Mujahed is someone who spent his life in Jihad….

al-Shahid is someone who died and considered a Shahid for some reason….He could have spent 5 minutes in Jihad but died…so he is a Shahid…

When you say so and so is a Mujahed …that denotes to a long time spent for the cause…

So to call Shaykh al-Jabal a Mujahed is a lie as obvious.

I had acquaintances in the field of smuggling who new him well, his “business” was put to an end by Bassel Al Assad.

It is good to have this criminal and all of its kind buried underneath. Most of the war lords in both sides (Assass Iranian Jihadi Army and Sunna Jihadis of Mohammad) should follow the same way.

Anyone here really believes that Mohammad was a prophet? My God !!! Maybe this is the original sin. People cheating themselves and killing for it. There is not true prophets and no true religions, there is only God, if you want to call it God but he is not looking at you, even if you are looking at him.

Mjabali, Jacobi, and Madhatter thanks for the interesting comments.

2. SANDRO LOEWE said:

¨Baghdad Scuttlebutt: Pssst! Obama’s a Shi’ite¨

This article below was written by 2008 when anyone ever could imagine the Iranian politics of President Obama.

that was interesting for the mainstream source and pundits cited.
but not so bizarre. obama’s stance of engaging iran without preconditions figured prominently during democratic primary season throughout 2007 when he and hillary clinton clashed over it.

in hindsight, obama foreign policy regarding iran was baked in even before he became nominee. question is whose agenda is he serving?

Thanks Professor Landis for the good articles about Syria and Iraq….

Thanks also to Mr. Matt Barber and all of those who keep quality articles in this unique blog…

Thanks to the US administration for letting the syrian people die for 4 years to finally negotiate with the ethnic cleanesing sectarian dictatorship of Assad to keep him in power.

The United States of America, the land of the free and the slaves is now the country that will sign a deal with Assad and Iran. The USA will give nuclear power to Iran, will forgive the use of chemical weapons by syrian criminals and will let Assad be the new Prince of the Persian Satrapie of Syria, the new empowered master of regional and wolrd terrorism.

Thank you America !!! We will never trust you again.

The Killing of Muhammad al-Assad

1. ghufran said: The reputation of the man was absolutely horrendous
3. mjabali said: He was a bad person, a smuggler no more no less

oic, this thug is an exception, an outlier, a bad apple. it’s not like the regime itself is rotten to the core. gimme a break.

13. OMEN

Muhammad Al Assad was the climax and model of the base that support the regime from its roots. This is a model of the aescoria that has created this criminal terrorist gang of Assadists mostly alawis psycho killers.

Now all of them say, Muhammad was very bad and the regime is not that bad. But thousands of criminals and dirty animals hide behind the regime.

Omen

You make me laugh for some reason…always talking about things you have no idea about trying to score with one liners…

You should be a stand up comedian…one liners ……..

For me these one-liners are a sign of inability to go deep into the topic…

I am talking about a thug I grew up seeing …How much do you know about Shaykh al-Jabal?

Sticking your self into other people’s comments to throw a political view to prove to your employer that you deserve the salary they pay you is clear.

Clearly you are paid to troll…

You getting paid per sentence or per word?

Syrian Brother Sandro:

Take it easy my dear brother..Obama is a Shia……

Also I saw you worte wondering if Muhammad was a prophet or not? I could not understand your comment in which you posted few days ago…You said:

“Anyone here really believes that Mohammad was a prophet? My God !!! Maybe this is the original sin. There is not true prophets and no true religions, there is only God, if you want to call it God.”

So you do not believe Mohammad was a prophet? What is going on brother?

watch this video please;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olcjTDVJdRY

This Imam has met Assad, talking about the situation, in the beginning of so called Revolution, he said that Family members of Assad and his Mother interfere his decisions.
Apparently Assad is not only suffering from interfering his Family in his work, but also from the black history of some Family members.
Muhammad al-Assad is one of what Assad got shame of being his cousin, make out like a bandit, but he was a bandit.
So I’m not wondering if Assad him self in some way, gave orders to liquidate him, it’s much better to execute him, for his criminal conduct.
Don’t forget this man has alot of enemies waiting for the time to get revenge from him.
And I’m not wondering also if Assad is going to get rid of other family members, whom had such a bad conduct in the past, by liquidating them in the same way by so called revenge from their enemy, or in a Battle.
There is a lot of candidates, of Assad family will reach their death in such way, to clean the family name, such as his uncle Jamil and all son’s and many others, even his uncle that one he stay in France he shouldn’t escape this punishment and all his son’s, because he was a big bandit in the 80’s.
But here once again about this video was made by al-Jazeera which’s I never trusted. (for this I’m ready to get at least 20 red dots from you al-Jazeera lovers). my pleasure.
En for that Imam, the Mosque he served in, that Mosque was terrorizing the area in Homs for more than 40 years, but the Government tolerate that.
We have been suffering from that Mosque and other one next to this one only 100 meter further, that also happened in Mosque in other area’s.
So the Government had in both side mistakes, tolerating for the Sunnah and Alawite every his own way of terrorize the rest of us. ( and for this another 30 red dot). no problem at all …………….
My pleasure thank you very much all, en sorry for this English coz my mother language is Japanees.
thankyou Mr. Joshua landis

東北を祈って@日拡連

15. mjabali

thank you mj for reinforcing my point.

14. SANDRO LOEWE said:

Muhammad Al Assad was the climax and model of the base that support the regime from its roots. This is a model of the aescoria that has created this criminal terrorist gang of Assadists mostly alawis psycho killers.

Now all of them say, Muhammad was very bad and the regime is not that bad. But thousands of criminals and dirty animals hide behind the regime.

forgive me, sandro, what is this word “aescoria” ?

To all Turks, Iranians, Pakistanis, Israelis, GCC Bedouins, Wahhabi foreign psychos and all others who are ” concerned” about Syrians, what Syria needs is your money ( yet to come), your silence or both. At the end of the day it was mostly Syrians who died, injured, starved or got displaced.
The more I read comments from “conceded” non Syrians the more I want to throw up.

20. Ghufran said:

To all Turks, Iranians, Pakistanis, Israelis, GCC Bedouins, Wahhabi foreign psychos and all others who are ” concerned” about Syrians, what Syria needs is your money (yet to come), your silence or both. At the end of the day it was mostly Syrians who died, injured, starved or got displaced.
The more I read comments from “conceded” non Syrians the more I want to throw up.

and who is responsible for all of the dead, injured, starved, orphaned and displaced?

instead of constantly granting them allowance, you should focus your anger on assad & the regime. it is THEY who have reduced syria to ashes, making life a living hell.

p.s.

The more I read comments from “conceded” non Syrians…

hmm…freudian slip/admission in the typo? is there something you want to concede, ghufran? feel free. might help you feel better.

Would you like to make a more convincing argument against this one by Aaron David Miller:

The Risks in Negotiating With Syria’s Assad

BADR

Thanks for your link. Convincing me that US is lost and syrians futures too.

OMEN

Sorry for this word. This is not correct. I meant GARBAGE.
Scoria or Arcoeria means garbage from vulcanos.

Brother Jabali MJABALI:

So do you think Muhammad is the last prophet? You believe there will not be more prophets from now on ?

And do you also respect those who do not believe Muhammad is the prophet (jews and christians and all the rest of the world except muslims) ?

But you do not understand my brother jabali I say to you I do not belive Ali, Mohammad, King David or Assad are prophets? What is your problem?

Do you think people who talks what he thinks in freedom must be punished to death like in Iran or Saudi Arabia?

What is you problem with your religion? I guess you, like many many people who acts like tolerant people, are sectarian muslims and you cannot accept free words of wisdom .

IRGC official: Iran indoctrinating
Syria youth

….. Earlier in the week, one of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s advisors said that no power had the right to oppose Iran in the region.

“All of the Middle East is Iranian,” Kurdish Iraqi Rudaw news agency quoted Ali Younesi as saying at a Tehran forum on Iranian heritage…..

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/564958-irgc-official-iran-indoctrinating-syria-youth

Hezbollah terrorist jihadist milicias an Iran jihadist state EXCLUDED from US terror report.

The deal Iran – US is already cooked and ready to be served.

The Near and Middle East are now in the hands of the new american dog : Iran. Now Iran will recognize de facto de state of Israel and arabs will disappear from any decision power in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

Bush was bad, Obama may be even worse.

Brother Sandro Loewe:

tsk tsk tsk…..

What happened to you?

Few days ago you were the biggest defender of Islam and Muslims, and now you are bashing them…. Did you change camps mr. Sandro? Or is المشروب مغشوش

Ask the Muslims on this board and they will tell you that I am no Muslim so say whatever you want about Muhammad, Ali, Abu Bakr, Umar, al-Qa3qaq bin ‘Amru, Sharhabil ibn Hasna, Mas’ab ibn ‘Umair, Abd Allah Ibn al-Zubayr and Abu Sufyan….

Your words reflect a deep hatred towards Muslims what happened to you, the man who lived in harmony with Muslims all of your life.

Worship a rock that is your business…but do not hit me with it…as they say…

You did not answer my point: Is Obama a Shia? His middle name is Husayn, remember brother….

Another late eighties smuggler is gone, when I was in college then, Fawaz, then Shaikh al jabal , then Haroon , then other smaller value people …in order, dominated the action in Lattakia. I can’t help remembering Um Anwar , with her cane that she hit the governor with !!!

I recall him driving around in a black Chevy camper van, one of my friends “got a ride” in that van, he had to find his way to the passenger seat through grenades, guns, and automatic rifles ..

The famous battles of the smugglers in the late eighties was a real war on who will dominate the “Aleppo line” . A smuggling route that extends from triploi to Aleppo . I was in military obligatory service when that was happening, we received many victims from the “mukhabarat” as well as from the smugglers to the military hospital.

That guy was short, and used his last name as well as his weapons to dominate the scene, and get girls… I do remember a separate incident of a girl who was abducted by one of these thugs, her father, a senior police officer camped at the door of the republican palace in Damascus until he got his girl back.

I don’t know how sheikh al jabal died, but if he did succumb fighting in Doreen, he would wash off just a little of the filth attached to his reputation.
Honestly, duing the eighties he was just a smuggler, Assad or not, he and other assads are only a part of the reason why alawis are hated indiscriminately, as they also were a target of these actions, that father – police officer was an alawi ..

The question is what difference is there between this guy and his cousins and the boy’s maternal cousins?
In my opinion none whatsoever. They are all exactly the same.

I have though an interesting statistic: this is not scientific but one of my colleagues that travels to Iran yearly tells me that it seems the majority of the young under 30 are atheists and likewise another friend that travels to KSA said the same thing: a significant proportion of young are secretly atheists as this mumbo jumbo or Shia and Wahhabi religious chokehold of the people is leading to total abandonment.

FAILING SYRIA
Report by a global coalition of aid agencies

I have no delusions about the chances of implementing the recommendations. Here is one of them:

governments with influence in Syria should:
Avoid fuelling the conflict and serious violations of IHL and IHRL by halting the supply of arms, ammunition and military personnel to parties which have been responsible for violations.

What was a predator drone doing over Latakia ?
The pentagon reported the loss of the drone but did not elaborate on why it crashed.
SANA said it was shot down.

Bibi Netanyahu has got the victory. This means more problems for Obama. This means lack of stability to any agreement Obama can sign with Iran. Bibi and the republicans in USA will veto any further developments with Iran. But do not be fooled, even the leftists are solid against Iran. Most of the wars and agressions against neighbours have been led by Laborist Party in the past.

Obama, what else now ? Take your Nobel Prize and go to the museum of afro-american history.

29. Observer said:
The question is what difference is there between this guy and his cousins and the boy’s maternal cousins? In my opinion none whatsoever. They are all exactly the same.

let’s seek differentiation. how many denounce assad continuing use of chemical weapons?

click on the red thumbs down button if you support assad continuing to gas children.

Omen the paid propagandist:

I gave you a thumbs down…a red button ..a red flag…and a red card…

Do not try to affect the way people think because Assad is killing children. He is responsible for it. My opinion in your paid posts has nothing to do with him.

The topic here is Shaykh al-Jabal…did he use chemical weapons? he got a bullet in his eye by another Alawite. Do you have anything to say about this?

What Observaaaaar said is his personal opinion, and could be right or wrong, but at least he personally added something to the very interesting debate.

One could argue against Observaar and say that there are differences or not between Shaykh al-Jabal, and Shaykh al-Jabal in Damascus.

Observaar, with his simplistic views that both are Alawites so they should be the same, did not offer that much but still it was a step in the right direction.

You want to come here and get your thumbs up, so your employer, who wants to push the Chemical trick again, as if we Syrians do not have enough violence by ALL OF THEM.

Wish peace for my country Syria and wish an end to this violence.

Thumbs down

You want to come here and get your thumbs up, so your employer, who wants to push the Chemical trick again

really, now. are you suggesting assad is not responsible for dropping barrel bombs filled with chlorine? must be ghosts dropping them from the sky.

a father collapses upon discovery his child wasn’t gassed to death.

much to his shock, his child is still alive. it’s like a miracle.

what kind of syrian would subject other syrians to this continuing torment? not a day goes by when children aren’t slaughtered. is your fear of the unknown worse than this neverending nightmare? people need to decide; who do you love more? who do you pledge loyalty to? assad or syria?

Omen the paid propagandist:

To tell you the truth, and I do not want to defend al-Assad: he is not in desperate need to use chemicals…he has enough explosives…see what he did to Handarat today….

Omen: the paid propagandist:

Obviously my response is too much for you to handle….You can barely answer any point of mine and always direct me into some emotional TRAP……

Go play somewhere else…

You trying to manipulate people’s emotions is a cheap ploy…go play another one…

Paid propagandists have the same bag of tricks….

What Syria need today is a political solution not another round of making stories that is going to further the misery of the Syrian people because it encourages more violence.

Syria needs a cease fire by all parties..that is what we SYRIANS should hope for…

Omen the paid propagandist: pouring gas on the flames of war is not good for us Syrians….it did not bring anything but misery….5 years and counting….

Question for those with better understanding of American law than I. The drone that was went down in Latakia, if it was actually downed by Assad’s forces as SANA claims, does that constitute as an act of aggression towards the US?

/an act of aggression towards the US?/
Sami
Syrian Arab army will not hesitate to shoot down any object violates Syrian sovereignty
And it does not matter if this object sent by your favorite country or not!

Oh Allan… The US while it’s constitution and Bill of Rights are some of the best things written around it is not my favourite country. That would be Syria.

As for my question, it’s not in defence of the US and I am well aware of the fact they are technically violating Syrian airspace and Syria has every right to shoot it down. That however does not nullify the fact the US airforce has a mandate from the President and Congress to do so, so the premise that by shooting down a drone that has authority from Congress to do so, does that constitute by the laws of the US an act of aggression?

Whether you agree with my political choice or not does not affect the validity of my question.

37. mjabali said:

Omen the paid propagandist:

To tell you the truth, and I do not want to defend al-Assad

then dont.

you dont solve hitler with a political solution.

/the fact the US airforce has a mandate from the President and Congress to do so/
SAMI
Is the Congress and the president are the final word in international relations?
Are you under the influence of American exceptionalism?
We are here in this part of the world believe that American exceptionalism is an anomaly and behavior outside the law

Posted on Iran Military Forum a few hours ago:

“Breaking :
According to Reports :
Rafic Chehade(chief of Syrian Military security),Rustom Ghazali (Chief of Syrian political security) were dismissed.
Rustom Ghazali was leader of Syrian military in Lebanon from 2000 to 2005.

from twitter

Ashkan ‏@Zarathoustra96 10 hours ago
#Assad is relieving old military chiefs from their duties. That’s the best thing to do if he wants to win this war. #Syria

it’s very hard not to agree with him, Assad should have done this years ago.”

http://www.iranmilitaryforum.net/military-conflicts/updates-on-military-action-in-syria/msg291997/#msg291997

If true, perhaps Assad feels confident enough, with Iran and co having his back, to get rid of some of the older security/military heads. After all after 4 years experience in fighting the revolution the new (possibly younger) replacements can be relied on to adequately step into their predecessors shoes and relied upon for loyaly to Assad and the regime.

Perhaps in Assads eyes replacing the old guard, who have served their usefulness, may as a bonus help ‘clean’ the regimes image.

How would the remaining old guard feel? Can they expect to be replaced too? Are they safe in their current roles? Should the likes of Jamil Hassan and Ali Mamlouk be nervous or are they too valuable and powerful to replace?

Welcome back ALAN.

I was beginning to worry about your absence. The recent uncertainty and rumours surrounding Mr Putin can’t have been easy for you. I was going to post my concern before you returned. Well it seems you’re ok and firing on all cylinders.

If Damascus falls, Europe won’t be far behind – US senator
http://rt.com/news/242061-senator-isis-damascus-europe/

44. Uzair8 said: Posted on Iran Military Forum a few hours ago: “Breaking : According to Reports:Rafic Chehade(chief of Syrian Military security),Rustom Ghazali (Chief of Syrian political security) were dismissed.

earlier rumors were saying he was dead, now he’s only dismissed? speculation from syrian activists: rustom was involved with the hariri assassination. he could tie assad to the murder. people wondered if bashar killed him in order to tie loose ends to avoid being implicated.

could rustom implicate iran as well? with iran deal so close within reach, the mullahs are not going to want a loose cannon running around with potential to mess up their plans.

either way, i would not want to be in rustom’s shoes.

Just wanted to come by and say that Omen’s either a al Nusra fanboy, or a paid troll

Omen is what she her self said in her twitter old profile (@omen_99 at that time, not anymore): a Christian women from California who doesn’t understand or read Arabic. She did write over one hundred thousand tweets (mostly retweets which she did believe would benefit her “instutions” propagandist efforts). There are some equal western “characters” like Omen who bombard twitter’s audience by manufacturing wast masses of tweets and creating so an echo chamber for their “sides” propaganda. It is impossible to believe that such full time work is honest human rights activism, especially when these individuals are rather dismissive to what happened in Gaza or in Iraq and hardly ever criticize Sunni states’ dictators loyal to USA.

An old comment of Omen’s strange writing habits in the middle of Californian night

These childish accusation are a tell tale sign of how bankrupt your arguments are. Got nothing intelligent to counter with so you stoop to throwing accusations that cannot be proven.

This crap has nothing to do with either the post or Syria. Don’t like what they say you can skip the post.

Grow up!

17. Yacoubi said:

watch this video please;

This Imam has met Assad, talking about the situation, in the beginning of so called Revolution, he said that Family members of Assad and his Mother interfere his decisions. Apparently Assad is not only suffering from interfering his Family in his work, but also from the black history of some Family members. Muhammad al-Assad is one of what Assad got shame of being his cousin, make out like a bandit, but he was a bandit. So I’m not wondering if Assad him self in some way, gave orders to liquidate him, it’s much better to execute him, for his criminal conduct.

forgive me yacoubi, this is not an attack against you. i appreciate you being kind enough to provide a summary but i am struck by this imam’s argument.

it’s all mommie’s fault? is this really credible? all this time i thought hitler responsible for the holocaust. bet mom was to blame.

i like how apologists, like this imam, put bashar up on a pedestal. according to them, batta’s the real victim suffering the machinations of his own regime. as absurd as that sounds, it exposes the desperation of his supporters grasping at straws to relieve their conscience of the ugly reality of their supporting genocide. i believe this is called arrested emotional development to be so juvenile as to blame MOTHER for all evil in the world.

if bashar is too weak to stand up to his mommie, is he fit to rule?

sami thank you. trolls who only resort to personalization bring nothing to the table & have no game. we are better off ignoring the mosquito buzzing. i dont even notice the noise anymore.

welcome back alan.

37. mjabali said:

Omen: the paid propagandist:

Obviously my response is too much for you to handle….You can barely answer any point of mine and always direct me into some emotional TRAP……

Go play somewhere else…

You trying to manipulate people’s emotions is a cheap ploy…go play another one…

Paid propagandists have the same bag of tricks….

What Syria need today is a political solution not another round of making stories that is going to further the misery of the Syrian people because it encourages more violence.

in other words, it’s pointless to appeal to your humanity.

why have you hardened your heart against your people’s anguish?

Only in Athad lala land, a drug overdose makes one a Martyr Doctor Mujahid Hero. Go figure. A former editor of this blog must be irritated now, a cousin of the illustrious prethident beloved by most syrians is now dead. The Noble Royal family of syria is now minus 1 ….oops make that -2 as of the date of this hateful comment. May the prethident and the rest of this clan of filth all become doctors mujahids heroes and above all, martyrs.

I know Ghufran, you can cry for me, I am no longer a humanist, specially when it comes to this clan of filth.

Landis states that this scum bag was “not a man of consequence”, what is this? trying to clear the rap sheet of the thug in chief? by disassociating him from the crimes of his cousins, who are his most critical intimidation gangs in the coastal mountains?

as for no consequence… i think Landis needs to tell that to the victims of this scumbag’s crimes………

LOL, the criminal was stopped by the “Chevalier martyer” bassel al-ass-ad.
that thug was not trying to clean, everyone knows, he was collecting from those who did not pay the sons of hafer share. Meaning he was establishing the sons of hafer’s monopoly on gang affairs.

Funny how much baathist athadist myths permeate the sub-conscious of Syrians. Funnier yet it is when a westerner peddles these myths.

I believe he lived the life he had to in order to survive what I have seen about him I believe he was a true man and should be honored and no matter what he was a soldier of life