Assad pledges to punish cousin for murder

DAMASCUS — Syria’s President Bashar Assad vows to punish a cousin who is accused of killing a military officer, the family of the victim told the Syrian daily Al-Watan on Monday.

Suleiman al-Assad, a first cousin once removed of the president, is accused of shooting dead Colonel Hassan al-Sheikh in an apparent road rage incident on Thursday evening.

Sheikh’s wife Mayssa Ghanem tells Al-Watan, which is close to the government, that she had “received a promise from President Assad to punish the perpetrator, whoever he is.”

Suleiman al-Assad killed Sheikh after the colonel reportedly overtook him at a crossroads in Latakia, the coastal province that is the heartland of the minority Alawite community to which the president belongs.

— AFP