SYRIAN SHOT

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32860, 8 March 1972, Page 17

SYRIAN SHOT

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

BEIRUT, March 7.

General Mohammed Omran. a former Syrian deputy Prime Minister, who lived in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli in exile for the last three years, was shot and killed on Sunday when he answered a knock on his door.

Still dressed in his pyjamas General Omran opened the door of his home at 7.15 a.rn. and was hit by five bullets in his chest and stomach, police sources said. The assassins, two men and a woman, escaped in a waiting car.

General Omran, aged 50, left a widow and nine children.

General Omran was one of the leaders of the March 8, 1963, coup which brought the Baath (renaissance) party to power in Syria. He was later designated Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister by Lieuten-ant-General Amin Hafez, who was Prime Minister and chairman of the Revolution Command Council.

Later, however. Omran became involved in a power conflict with General Hafez. He lost when Major-General Salah Jadid, then Chief of Staff, rallied to the support of General Hafez. General Omran was gaoled briefly, then deported early in 1966. After a brief stay in Europe, he went to live in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city, where he raised sheep.