Funeral held for Syria officials killed in bombing

BEIRUT: A funeral ceremony was held on Friday for three of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's senior security officials who were killed in a bomb attack, Syrian state television said, without mentioning whether the president attended.

The attack on a meeting of Assad's inner circle on Wednesday killed his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, Defence Minister Daoud Rajha and veteran army general Hassan Turkmani.

The president's younger brother Maher attended the joint ceremony for the men at a military monument in Damascus, said a different television station, Al-Manar, owned by the Lebanese group which is a close ally of the Syrian government.

A fourth Syrian official, intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar, has died of wounds suffered in the Damascus bombing, the government said on Friday.

Assad himself has made only one appearance since the attack, adding to the sense of challenge to his authority.

On Thursday he was shown on television swearing in a new defence minister to replace Rajha.

After the funeral ceremony on Friday, Rajha's body was taken to a Damascus church where people from all sects prayed for the former defence minister, a Christian, before he was buried, witnesses said.

Shawkat's body was expected to be taken to his home village near the Mediterranean city of Tartus for burial later on Friday, residents said. (Reuters)