ALEPPO: A Syrian merchant in his 40s shot dead his Russian wife in the embattled northern city of Aleppo because she supported President Bashar Al Assad’s regime, the killer’s cousin said. Clothes shop owner Mohammed on Tuesday evening used a pistol to shoot his wife dead after an argument in their home in the rebel-held district of Maysar in southwestern Aleppo, said Ahmed, a 30-year-old government employee.
“The argument broke out when he criticised Assad, while she defended him,” said Ahmed. “The fight escalated and he shot her.”
Mohammed then went outside and told onlookers that his wife, whom he had met in Russia during a business trip and married four years ago, “would not stop her provocation by expressing support for Bashar, and that he could not take her attitude any longer,” said Ahmed. There is no police presence in Maysar. The rebels did not arrest the man. On July 20, the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army launched an assault on half of Aleppo, traditionally Syria’s commercial hub. Battle lines divide much of the city today into pro- and anti-regime districts.
Injured Syrian minister in Beirut for treatment
BEIRUT: Syrian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaar, who was injured in suicide bombings last week in Damascus, arrived yesterday in Beirut for treatment, a Lebanese cabinet minister said. “The minister arrived at 7:30pm at Beirut airport, and he was taken to the American University Hospital,” the ministersaid on condition of anonymity.AFP
