Leaked US signals intelligence have shown evidence of  intercepts that Israeli special forces were behind the assasination of  a senior Syrian military official who was a close adviser to President Bashar al-Assad.

Brig Gen Mahmoud Suleiman was shot dead on a beach near the northern Syrian port of Tartus in August 2008. At that time The Guardian reported that the seaside murder was perpetrated by a sniper firing from a yacht moored offshore.

Israel refrained from making any public statements. However  newly revealed secret US intelligence documents state as a fact that Israeli special forces killed the general.

According to the Guargian, this new revelation comes from an internal National Security Agency document that was provided by  Edward Snowden, and cited by the Intercept, edited by Glenn Greenwald. It said that a top-secret entry in the NSA’s internal version of Wikipedia, called Intellipedia, described the assassination by “Israeli naval commandos” near Tartus as the “first known instance of 'Israel' targeting a legitimate (Syrian) government official”.