The commander of the Syrian regime loyalist Baath Commandos regiment, Jihad Barakat, was subject to an assassination attempt using an explosive device at his home in the Barzeh district of Damascus.
The Masaken Barzeh News Network page said in a post on Facebook that, “the hands of terrorism and treachery reached for the commander of the Baath Commandos regiment, Jihad Barakat, with an explosive device near his house, but the damage was only material.”
Barakat was born in Qardaha in 1964 and is linked to the family of Syrian regime head Bashar al-Assad through his marriage to Intisar, the daughter of Badeea al-Assad.
Barakat was appointed head of the Baath Brigades in the Damascus countryside on May 17, 2015, to take on the task of putting an end to what the government describes as “the scourge of terrorism” and to support the Syrian army in its military operations in the Damascus countryside.
In September 2018, Barakat received a memorial shield after Brigadier General Suhail Hassan ended the contracts of 6,500 fighters in the Baath Commandos deployed throughout Syria.
Barakat said on his Facebook page at the time that “combat operations by Baath forces in Homs have ended entirely.”
The Baath Commandos are made up of civilian volunteers who fight alongside regime forces as so-called “support forces” and they were started to be dissolved in 2018.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
