Israeli media: President Assad's cousin killed in shootout in Syria

Arua Diba, a cousin of President Bashar al-Assad who was in charge of security for the Alawite village of Qardaha (northwest Syria, near Latakia), has been killed in a shootout in Syria. Anour Haroun al-Assad was also killed.

NEWSru.co.il reported that the men were involved in drug trafficking and were killed in a gang shootout.

The shootout took place amid sharing of money and a large amount of the synthetic drug Captagon, which was intercepted on its way to Saudi Arabia.

Official Syrian media have not commented on this information.