Terrorists assassinate lawmaker in central Syria
Unidentified terrorists have shot and killed a Syrian legislator in the restive province of Hama.
On Tuesday night, armed men opened fire on Waris al-Younes’ car as he was traveling on a road linking the city of Hama to the town of Salamiyeh.
No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the incident. Younes represented Hama Province in the Syrian parliament.
A source at Hama Police Command told Syrian news agency, SANA, that terrorists opened fire on al-Younes’ car near Um al-Twaikiye crossroads as he was heading from Hama to al-Salamiya.
The source added that the terrorist attack also claimed the life of a civilian who was driving his car nearby when the attack took place.
The development comes as several Syrian officials have been assassinated in a similar fashion since the country plunged into a conflict in early 2011.
In July 2012, four top Syrian officials, including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, and former Defense Minister, General Dawoud Rajha, were killed in a bombing at a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are reportedly supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in the war-ravaged country, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling the figure a probable “underestimate” of the real total number of people killed.
