Syrian Defense Minister stabbed to death

Added by Gary Dunn on August 1, 2012

Syrian Defense Minister, Fahad Jassim al-Freij was reportedly killed on Tuesday say sources.

Cairo-based news agency “Ona” quoted a source about the killing, “Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij was stabbed to death at the hands of one of his relatives.”

The Defence Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij was appointed on July 18 after Syrian government opposition forces bombed the country’s national security headquarters in Damascus, killing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s bother in law, Interior Minister, Defence Minister, and Head of National Security.

On 15 July 2012 the International Committee of the Red Cross assessed the on-going Syrian conflict as a civil war or “non-international armed conflict”. Current estimates of deaths during the conflict range between 19,000 to 27,000; UNICEF reported 500 children are among the dead, with an additional 400 children arrested and held in Syrian prisons.

The on-going conflict has displaced approximately 200,000 as refugees with approximately 55,000 aged under 18 and approximately 120,000 in Jordan.