Assassination wave hits Syria

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A wave of assassinations of high-profile figures has hit Syria with a nuclear engineer and a high-ranking law enforcement officer becoming the latest victims.

Nuclear engineer and university professor Aws Abdel Karim Khalil was shot in the head by an armed terrorist group operating in the city of Homs in western Syria on Wednesday, Syria's state Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

Security officer Colonel Tayssir al-Oqla was shot dead by another terrorist outfit at al-Ta'awuniya neighborhood of Hama, another western city. An official source in Hama told SANA's correspondent that Colonel al-Oqla was on duty, when he came under the terrorists' machinegun fire.

Khalil is the fourth Syrian academic to be assassinated in Homs since Sunday.

His death came as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was meeting with former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss in the capital, Damascus.

Later on Wednesday, Hoss told a Lebanese TV channel that "Syria experienced an international attack. We know Syria was targeted and that they [the foreign powers] want to isolate it".

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the tension.

Damascus says that the unrest is being orchestrated from outside the country and that the security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians.

Syria state TV has also broadcast reports and images of seizure of arms caches and confessions by terrorist elements, pointing to how they obtained weaponry from foreign sources.

The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Belarus, meanwhile, met with their Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem in New York on the sidelines of the 66th annual session of the UN General Assembly, expressing solidarity with the people of Syria.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar denounced foreign interference in other countries' internal affairs and stressed the need for respecting any state's right to solve its own internal shortcomings.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Dato Sri Anifa Aman condemned, what he called, a foreign campaign launched against the Syrians, stressing his country's keenness on witnessing realization of security and stability in the country.

The Venezuelan official, Nicolas Maduro Moros, also denounced the 'vicious' attack by foreign powers against Damascus for its resistance against the United States and Israel.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergey Martinov expresses confidence in the Syrian leadership's ability to materialize political reforms and protect its security and stability.

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