Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Hisham Ikhtiyar ( ar, هشام اختيار); 1941 – 20 July 2012) (family name also transliterated as Ikhtiar, Bakhtiar, Bekhityar, Bekhtyar and other variants) was a

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

n military official, and a national security adviser to president

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

Early life

Hisham Ikhtiyar was born to a Sunni family in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

in 1941.

Career

Ikhtiyar was director of the general security directorate from 2001 to 2005. He was one of the effective Syrian officers, who monitored and repressed

the Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

in Syria. Then he was appointed head of Syria’s general intelligence directorate. In addition, he was an advisor to Syrian president Bashar Assad. He was appointed director of the

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...

regional command's national security bureau (NSB) in 2005.

Controversy

Ikhtiyar was regarded as a part of Assad's inner circle. In 2006, the

United States Treasury Department The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an United States federal executive departments, executive department. The departme ...

announced that American citizens and organizations were forbidden from engaging in any transactions with Ikhtiyar, for "significantly contributing to the Syrian Government's support for designated terrorist organizations,", and in 2007, Ikhtiyar was included on a list of Syrians forbidden to enter American territory. Gen Ikhtiar was reportedly charged with quelling the initial pro-democracy protests in

Deraa Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jordan ...

. The brutal crackdown launched by the security services in the southern city helped trigger the recent nationwide unrest. In May 2011, the US treasury department and the European Union imposed sanctions on the National Security Bureau, saying it had directed Syrian security forces to use extreme force against demonstrators.

Rumoured death

On 19 May 2012, the

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...

's (FSA) Damascus council announced that one of their operatives from the FSA's Al Sahabeh battalion had successfully poisoned all eight members of Bashar Assad's Crisis Cell, a group of top military officials who run the Syrian army's daily operations. The Free Syrian Army's Damascus council said they believed at least six out of the eight members, including

Hasan Turkmani Hasan Ali Turkmani ( ar, حسن توركماني; 27 January 1935 – 18 July 2012) was a prominent Syrian military commander and Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party member. He served as the minister of defense in Syria from 2004 to 2009. He and t ...

Assef Shawkat Assef Shawkat ( ar, آصِفُ شَوْكَتْ, ʾĀṣif Šawkat‎; 15 January 1950 – 18 July 2012) was the deputy Minister of Defense of Syria from September 2011 until his death in July 2012. He was the brother-in-law of Syrian Preside ...

, Mohammad al-Shaar, Daoud Rajha, Hisham Ikhtiyar and Mohammad Said Bakhtian, to have been killed. Mohammad al-Shaar, then interior minister, and Hasan Turkmani, then assistant vice president, denied their own deaths to State TV, calling it "categorically baseless".

Death

Ikhtiyar was wounded in the

18 July 2012 Damascus bombing The 18 July 2012 Damascus bombing of the National Security headquarters in Rawda Square, Damascus, killed and injured a number of top military and security officials of the Syrian government. Among the dead were the Syrian Defense Minister an ...

of the Syrian Central Crisis Management Cell. On 20 July 2012, Syrian state television announced that he had died from his injuries.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ikhtiyar, Hisham 1941 births 2012 deaths Politicians from Damascus Syrian Sunni Muslims Members of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region Syrian generals Military personnel killed in the Syrian civil war Assassinated Syrian politicians Deaths by explosive device Terrorism deaths in Syria Assassinated military personnel 2012 murders in Syria Syrian individuals subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions