Funeral Ceremony for Syria’s Top Officials

Funeral Ceremony for Syria’s Top Officials
20 July, 2012 – moqawama.org

An official funeral ceremony was held on Friday for three of Syria’s top military and security officials who were martyred Wednesday in a terrorist bomb attack, Syrian state television said.

The attack on a meeting of the regime’s inner circle killed his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, Defense Minister Daoud Rajha and veteran army general Hassan Turkmani.

The president’s [Bashar al-Assad] younger brother top General Maher attended the joint ceremony for the men at a military monument in Damascus. Al-Assad’s Vice President Farouq al-Sharea also attended the funeral.
A fourth Syrian official, intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar, has died of wounds suffered in the Damascus bombing, the government said on Friday.Meanwhile, the President was shown on television swearing in a new defense minister to replace Rajha.

After the funeral ceremony on Friday, Rlitaryajha’s body was taken to a Damascus church where people from all sects prayed for the former defense minister, a Christian, before he was buried, witnesses said.
Shawkat’s body was expected to be taken to his home village near the Mediterranean city of Tartus for burial later on Friday, residents said. …more