Hafez Mohamad Makhlouf, known as Hafez Makhlouf, is a Syrian brigadier general and intelligence officer who headed the Damascus branch of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate.
12 Facts About Hafez Makhlouf
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Hafez Makhlouf was a member of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's inner circle of close supporters.
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Hafez Makhlouf is a maternal cousin of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the brother of Rami Makhlouf, a leading businessman in Syria.
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Hafez Makhlouf is a cousin of Atef Najib, former political security chief in the city of Daraa.
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Hafez Makhlouf was injured in the high-speed car crash in 1994 that resulted in Bassel's death.
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Hafez Makhlouf was a Colonel of the Army and the head of Section 40 at the General Security Directorate's Internal Branch until 2014.
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Hafez Makhlouf met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo.
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Hafez Makhlouf returned to his post in the GID, overseeing import of weapons into Syria from Russia and Belarus.
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Hafez Makhlouf was further sanctioned in 2011 by the United States in May, the EU in September.
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In February 2012, Hafez Makhlouf won a legal bid to unfreeze SFr 3 million held in bank accounts in Switzerland after he appealed, saying it predated sanctions.
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On 18 July 2012, Al Arabiya reported that Hafez Makhlouf was killed in a bombing which targeted a meeting of the Central Crisis Management Cell at Syria's National Security headquarters in Damascus.
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Joshua Landis, a US expert on Syria, tweeted that Hafez Makhlouf had left Syria and that he and his brother Ihab had removed Assad's photo from their Facebook pages and WhatsApp profiles.