Prominent regime-linked Syrian businessman said killed in alleged Israeli strike
Mohammed Baraa Katerji reportedly dies in car hit on Damascus-Beirut highway; tycoon close to President Assad was sanctioned by US, said to have funded Hezbollah
An alleged Israeli drone strike on a car Monday near the Lebanon-Syria border killed a prominent Syrian businessman who had been sanctioned by the United States and was close to the government of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, pro-government media and other allied officials said.
Mohammed Baraa Katerji was killed instantly in his SUV on the highway linking Lebanon with Syria, according to an official from an Iran-backed group. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The pro-Syrian government newspaper Al-Watan quoted unnamed sources as saying Katerji was killed in a “Zionist drone strike on his car,” referring to Israel. It gave no further details.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strike, which reportedly occurred on the Syrian side of the border.
It came a day after Israel bombed Syrian army positions in response to a drone attack on the southern resort city of Eilat over the weekend that it said was launched from Syrian territory.
Tensions are taut in the north, where Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has been carrying out near-daily border attacks and rocket fire in support of Gaza during the ongoing war there against Hamas.
BREAKING – Prominent pro-regime Syrian businessman Baraa Katerji killed in Israeli strike near Lebanese-Syrian border – three security sources @Reuters pic.twitter.com/0mxwAxTdpN
— Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) July 15, 2024
The Kan public broadcaster reported that Katerji had funneled tens of millions of dollars to the Iran-backed Hezbollah, as well as to the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a unit dedicated to operations abroad.
Kan assessed that Katerji’s killing was intended to send a message to Assad not to get involved in the current fighting by enabling drones to be fired from Syria territory.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor of unclear funding, told The Associated Press by phone that it appeared Katerji may have been targeted because he had funded Syrian resistance against Israel in the Golan Heights, as well as because of his links to Iran-backed groups in Syria.
Katerji was part of a small circle of businessmen close to the ruling Assad family who rose to prominence during the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 after the government of Assad cracked down on popular protests.
Along with his brother Hussam, Katerji built a business empire associated with oil, logistics, transport, and construction.
The brothers and their businesses are under US sanctions, including for “facilitating petroleum shipments and financing to the Syrian Regime,” according to the US Treasury website.
The strike on Katerji happened on the same road where last week an alleged Israeli strike killed Yasser Qarnabash, said to be a former bodyguard to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Iran-aligned groups including Hezbollah and Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq have been firing on Israel since shortly after October 7, in what they have dubbed a “support front” to draw away Israeli fire from Gaza.
The war in Gaza erupted on October 7 when the Palestinian terror group Hezbollah led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas, topple its Gaza regime, and free 251 people who were abducted by terrorists and taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
