BEIRUT, (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad’s feared brother Maher lost a leg in a bomb attack on the Syrian leader’s security cabinet a month ago, Western and Gulf sources said today.
While a Lebanese politician with ties to the Assads questioned their assertion that Maher al-Assad had been badly wounded, it would be a heavy blow to one of the main military commanders fighting the 17-month-old insurgency.
The attack on a meeting of security chiefs in Damascus on July 18 was confirmed to have killed four members of the president’s inner circle, including a brother-in-law. It also emboldened the rebels to take their fight to the capital.
Though never a very visible member of the president’s entourage, Maher Assad has not been seen in public since the bombing. His brother has restricted presidential appearances to recorded broadcasts, leading to speculation about the effectiveness of the Syrian leadership as the rebellion grows.
Maher has acquired a fearsome reputation as the commander of the Syrian army’s Republican Guard and 4th Division, elite formations largely composed of troops from the Assads’ minority Alawite sect, whose loyalty can be relied on by the leadership.
“We heard that he lost one of his legs during the explosion, but don’t know any more,” a Western diplomat told Reuters. A Gulf source said: “He lost one of his legs. The news is true.”
However, a Lebanese politician with close ties to Damascus said he doubted whether Maher had indeed been wounded in the attack. He said a colleague had spoken to Maher by telephone on the day after the bombing, July 19, and the Syrian commander gave no hint to him that he had just sustained a serious injury.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told state television the government was confident: “Anyone who imagines the possibility of victory over the Syrian army is delusional,” he said, adding that rebels in the city of Aleppo had yet to be crushed because troops were taking care not to harm civilians.
Western powers and the Gulf Arab states have rallied behind the rebellion against Assad’s Iranian-backed government and the talk of Maher’s possible injury came as fears grew that the conflict, which has already claimed the lives of at least 18,000 people in Syria, was starting to spill over its borders into a region already torn by sectarian divisions.
