BEIRUT – Mihrac Ural, the notorious leader of a pro-Assad militia, has purportedly survived a targeted assassination attempt in the regime’s normally-secure coastal bastion of Latakia, only days after he reappeared in public for the first time in months.

At approximately midday Wednesday a laptop rigged with explosives detonated at the headquarters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Sanjak of Iskandarun, injuring Ural and a number of his colleagues, according to a statement issued by the group.

The group, which is also known as the Syrian Resistance, stressed that Ural—a Turkish Alawite with long ties to Damascus—was in good condition and recovering from his wounds.

Although the explosion did not kill anyone, it caused considerable damage to the headquarters, with the Syrian Resistance releasing a number of photos showing the aftermath of the explosion in the eastern Latakia suburb of Tishreen.

Damage in the Syrian Resistance headquarters.

Ural, a Syrian passport-holder who also goes by the name Ali Kayyali, spoke with Syrian broadcaster Al-Khabar about the mysterious incident, claiming that a volunteer in the Syrian Resistance left the explosive-rigged laptop on his table before leaving the room to make a call moments before the blast.

According to Ural, the explosion damaged the headquarters’ ceiling, which fell on him and wounded his head, neck and hands.

A recent photo of Mihrac Ural. (Facebook/Syrian Resistance)

The militia leader blamed Turkish intelligence for the attack, saying that Ankara “seeks to liquidate him under direct orders” from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey considers Ural one of its most wanted terrorists and has accused him of being behind the May 2013 bombings in Reyhanli that left over 50 dead.

The narrative of Wednesday’s blast put forward by Ural and his group has yet to be confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while opposition news outlets have not cited any of their own sources in their coverage on the incident.

Mihrac Ural disappears as part of counter-intelligence ploy

Mihrac Ural alongside an unnamed Hezbollah commander in a recently released video filmed in the Latakia countryside.

The alleged assassination attempt comes days after the infamous militia figure, dubbed the “Butcher of Baniyas” by opposition activists for his role in two 2013 massacres, made his first public appearance since the spring of 2016.

On Saturday, a video circulated social media showing Ural touring the frontlines in the north Latakia countryside, where he gave a speech flanked by his militia’s fighters as well as a Hezbollah commander, who thanked the Syrian Resistance chief for his visit.

Ural explained in his speech that his disappearance in late March 2016 was prompted by a Syrian intelligence operation to foil a Turkish assassination plot against him.

Although he did not go into details on the counter-intelligence effort in the video, he elaborated further on the matter in comments to Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar.

Ural told the pro-Hezbollah newspaper that Syrian security forces faked his death in late March in order to trap the alleged cell attempting to kill him as well as two other unnamed figures.

He added that Syrian intelligence prepared two staged photos purporting to show him kidnapped as well as dead, which were then leaked as part of the complex ploy.

On March 29, an Ahrar al-Sham spokesperson claimed the Islamist faction killed Ural with artillery fire on the Nabi Younes mountain peak outside Latakia.

Three days later, the Syrian Resistance issued a statement that they “lost contact” with Ural on March 27.

Ural, however, did not clarify the sequence of events, and whether his death was faked after the erroneous Ahrar al-Sham claim or if the powerful rebel faction had just fallen into the trap of rumors already being spread by Syrian intelligence.

The Syrian Resistance leader instead said that he went into hiding in the village of Fakhoura near Latakia for two weeks as the Syrian government conducted its operation.

“More than 20 people involved [in the assassination bid] were arrested,” he added.

Ural was detained in Turkey in 1980 for his membership in the Hatay Liberation Army as well the Marxist-Leninist People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey, but escaped that year to Syria, where he took up a role in the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Sanjak of Iskandarun.



Despite the far leftist ideology of the group, Ural and his militia have struck up sectarian rhetoric in support of the ruling Assad family in Syria and their fellow Alawites.

In May 2015, Ural appeared in a video in which he spoke out on the necessity to “cleanse” the Alawite-majority coastal region of Banias, which witnessed mass violence against Sunni residents.

“Banias must be soon besieged, liberated and cleansed,” he said, adding that “if required we will participate in the battles in Banias and fulfill our national duty.”

According to a UN report, approximately 400 Sunni civilians were killed in Bayda and Ras al-Nabaa, two villages on the outskirts of Banias.

NOW's English news desk editor Albin Szakola (@AlbinSzakola) wrote this report. Amin Nasr translated Arabic-language material.