Powerful former Syrian general dies

BEIRUT: Rostom Ghazali, the powerful Syrian general who was once considered the most powerful man in Lebanon and was suspected of involvement in the 2005 assassination of a former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harriri, has died in a hospital in the capital Damascus, a Syrian activist and local media reported on Friday.
Ghazali, in his early 60s, was once head of his military’s powerful political security branch and one of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s most trusted generals.
There was no official government comment and the circumstances of his death remain unclear.
Director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdurrahman said Ghazali died nearly two months after he was admitted with a head injury. Abdurrahman said Ghazali had been clinically dead for weeks, quoting informed medical officials in the hospital.
The Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, which has access to Syrian officials, and other Lebanese TV stations also reported Ghazali’s death, quoting officials. Reports at the time of Ghazali’s injury said he was beaten by the bodyguards of another Syrian general, in a dramatic escalation of a political dispute.
The reports said the disagreement between the two generals started after Ghazali’s men were not allowed to play a bigger role in a government offensive, in which Hezbollah fighters took part, against opposition fighters battling the government.