US Envoy: Killing of Lebanese Activist Lokman Slim ‘Barbaric Act’

Activists display placards bearing the portrait of slain prominent activist Lokman Slim and the Arabic slogan ‘zero fear’ at a demonstration in downtown Beirut on Feb. 9, 2021. (AFP)
Activists display placards bearing the portrait of slain prominent activist Lokman Slim and the Arabic slogan ‘zero fear’ at a demonstration in downtown Beirut on Feb. 9, 2021. (AFP)
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US Envoy: Killing of Lebanese Activist Lokman Slim ‘Barbaric Act’

Activists display placards bearing the portrait of slain prominent activist Lokman Slim and the Arabic slogan ‘zero fear’ at a demonstration in downtown Beirut on Feb. 9, 2021. (AFP)
Activists display placards bearing the portrait of slain prominent activist Lokman Slim and the Arabic slogan ‘zero fear’ at a demonstration in downtown Beirut on Feb. 9, 2021. (AFP)

The US ambassador to Lebanon paid a rare visit to a quarter of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold to attend the memorial service for activist Lokman Slim on Thursday.

He was shot dead and found in his car last Thursday in south Lebanon — the first killing of a high-profile activist in years.

“This was a barbaric act, unforgivable and unacceptable,” Dorothy Shea said in a speech at the service which was held at the family home in Beirut’s Dahiya quarter.

Slim ran a research center, made documentaries with his wife and led efforts to build an archive on Lebanon’s 1975-1990 sectarian civil war.



Damascus Arrests Drug Trafficker Linked to Maher al-Assad, Others Held Over Tadamon Massacre

Members of Syria's security forces. (Idlib Governorate)
Members of Syria's security forces. (Idlib Governorate)
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Damascus Arrests Drug Trafficker Linked to Maher al-Assad, Others Held Over Tadamon Massacre

Members of Syria's security forces. (Idlib Governorate)
Members of Syria's security forces. (Idlib Governorate)

Security forces in the Damascus countryside announced the arrest of Shadi Adel Mahfouz, describing him as one of the individuals involved in recent attacks on security forces in the coastal region.

Mahfouz was reportedly employed by the ousted regime’s Military Intelligence Branch 277 and was responsible for recruitment on behalf of Military Security.

Security forces also arrested two suspects linked to the 2013 massacre in the Tadamon district of Damascus: Kamel Sharif Abbas and Maher Hadeed.

Hadeed, a member of the National Defense Forces, is accused of committing additional war crimes against Syrian civilians. Authorities suspect a connection between Hadeed and Amjad Youssef, the primary suspect in the Tadamon massacre.

The arrests follow just over a month after Syrian security forces captured three individuals involved in the 2013 Tadamon massacre. One of the suspects confessed to killing more than 500 people in the Tadamon district at the start of the revolution against the former regime.

The massacre took place on Nasreen Street in Tadamon, near the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in Damascus.

It remained undiscovered for nearly nine years until footage surfaced in April 2022, published by the Guardian. The video revealed Syrian regime forces executing 41 civilians, including seven women and several children.

In related developments, local media sources reported the arrest of Mohannad Naaman, a close associate of Maher al-Assad and senior officers in the Fourth Division.

Naaman, originally from Harasta in the Damascus countryside, is accused of overseeing one of the major captagon pill production sites in both the Damascus countryside and along Syria’s coastal region, including a ship anchored off Syria’s shores.