'Assad cousin kills officer in fit of road rage'

Monitoring group says Suleiman Assad murdered colonel ‘because he overtook him at a crossroads’

A cousin of Syria’s President Bashar Assad shot dead a senior air force officer in a road rage incident in the Latakia coastal heartland of their minority Alawite community, a monitor said Friday.

Suleiman Assad, a first cousin once removed, killed Colonel Hassan Sheikh “because he overtook him at a crossroads” Thursday evening, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Assad “followed him, swerved the car around, got out and shot him dead,” said Abdul-Rahman, whose group has contacts across war-torn Syria.

He said tensions were running high among Alawites in Latakia, with some calling for Suleiman al-Assad, who has not been arrested, to be punished.

The killer’s father, Hilal Assad, a first cousin of the president, headed the defense forces in the Mediterranean city before his death in clashes with rebels in nearby Kasab in March 2014.

Thursday’s incident took place as rebel groups allied with al-Qaeda fight to advance on a key military headquarters in a region only 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the east of Latakia.