Israel has formally acknowledged its role in the 2008 assassination of Brigadier General Mohammad Sleiman, one of the closest military advisers to deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The confirmation came from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and was reported by the Times of Israel on Wednesday evening, 2 September.
In his book Arizona All of Us, Olmert writes that the killing was carried out by Shayetet 13, the elite naval commando unit. Sleiman, long regarded as a central figure within Assad’s security circle, was targeted at his residence in the coastal city of Tartus.
According to Olmert’s account, members of the naval unit approached the Syrian shoreline by sea and advanced toward Sleiman’s home. They located him on the balcony and, from a distance of roughly 150 meters, fired three rounds that struck him in the back of the head. The commandos then withdrew by sea.
For eighteen years, Israel refrained from publicly confirming its role in the operation, despite persistent accusations and intelligence assessments pointing to its involvement. Olmert’s disclosure marks the first explicit confirmation by a senior Israeli official who held office at the time, and it provides new operational details about how the strike was executed.
Corroborating Leaked Intelligence
Olmert’s account aligns with previously leaked intelligence. In 2015, documents from the U.S. National Security Agency indicated that Shayetet 13 carried out the mission.
Western reporting had long underscored Sleiman’s strategic importance during the 2006 July War between Hezbollah and Israel, as well as his close relationship with Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Damascus in February 2008.
On 15 May 2015, The Intercept published details from a document leaked by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. The report described how a small Israeli team entered Syrian territorial waters and killed Sleiman while he was dining with his family, shooting him in the head and neck. The document linked the operation to Sleiman’s central role in Syria’s clandestine nuclear program at Al-Kibar in eastern Syria.
Earlier reporting by Yedioth Ahronoth on 21 December 2010 identified Sleiman as a principal conduit between Syria and Hezbollah. The newspaper noted that conducting the operation from international or territorial waters was considered less risky than an overland strike deep inside Syria, particularly given Sleiman’s low public profile.
Joshua Landis, Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies, wrote in August 2008 that Sleiman was targeted because he possessed extensive sensitive knowledge. As the official overseeing key portfolios in Assad’s office, especially those related to military procurement, Sleiman occupied a pivotal position. Damascus, however, avoided directly accusing Israel in the immediate aftermath of his killing.
Assassination in Tartus
Sleiman was killed in August 2008 at his summer home in Tartus under circumstances that remained opaque for years. Syrian authorities acknowledged his death without naming the perpetrators, while contemporaneous accounts pointed to gunfire originating from the sea.
Although responsibility remained a matter of speculation for nearly a decade, the 2015 NSA leak revived scrutiny of the case and pointed directly to Shayetet 13. Olmert’s new disclosures now provide definitive confirmation of the operation and its method.
Who Was Mohammad Sleiman?
Mohammad Sleiman was among Assad’s most trusted advisers, holding sensitive military and security roles within the president’s inner circle. Born in 1959 in the Tartus Governorate, he rose through the ranks of the Syrian military before assuming responsibility for strategic weapons procurement, covert programs, and military partnerships.
He was closely linked to Syria’s secret nuclear initiative, with U.S. and Israeli intelligence identifying him as a key figure overseeing the reactor in Deir ez-Zor that Israel destroyed in an airstrike in September 2007.
Sleiman also played a central role in coordinating military cooperation with Iran and North Korea, and in managing Syria’s defense relationship with Hezbollah, particularly in the transfer of advanced weaponry. Israeli intelligence assessments described him as operating within a tight circle reporting directly to the presidency, granting him access to the regime’s most sensitive military and security operations.