Syria`s Assad replaces murdered Hama governor: SANA

Damascus: President Bashar al-Assad has replaced the governor of Hama province who was killed in a car bombing claimed by Islamist group Al-Nusra Front, Syria `s official news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.

Ghassan Omar Khalaf was named governor of the central province, which is in parts controlled by anti-regime rebels, the agency said, without further details. His predecessor Anas Abdel Razzaq al-Naem was killed on August 25 in Hama city. He had been named four months after the March 2011 outbreak of the revolt against Assad, replacing a governor who was sacked following mass protests in Hama that were later crushed by government troops. Al-Nusra Front, composed of jihadists, claimed the car-bomb attack, saying it was to avenge the alleged poison gas attacks on August 21 near Damascus that killed hundreds. Assad`s father and predecessor Hafez al-Assad brutally put down a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama city in 1982, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people. AFP