Mohammad Baraa Katerji, a well-known Syrian businessman who had strong relations with the administration of President Bashar al-Assad was murdered on Monday in an Israeli airstrike in Syria. He was murdered after a drone struck his car in Saboura, a region located a few kilometers inside Syria close to the Lebanese border. The official and pro-Damascus media sources that covered Katerji’s murder provided no more information on the murder.
Mohammad Baraa Katerji and his brother Hussam have long been well-known figures in Assad’s close circle, acting as front men for the president’s family’s illegal enterprises and financial ventures from which they have benefited.
The Katerji brothers gained notoriety in 2011 when Syria broke out into civil war as a result of the Assad regime’s brutal suppression of a citizen uprising. They are originally from Raqqa, a Syrian city that the jihadist group Isis formerly claimed as its capital.
Mohammad Baraa Katerji
The brothers’ rise to power was partially attributed to their role as go-betweens in the shady oil trade that took place between Damascus and Isis during the group’s peak and, more recently, with Syrian Kurdish troops controlling northeastern Syria.
Reportedly, they also supported the transfer of weaponry from Iraq to Syria. Over the previous ten years, the Katerji brothers established a vast corporate organization that included banking, construction, logistics, transportation, and the black market for oil. They gained favor with Assad and his influential wife Asma, notably by providing financing to terrorist organizations.
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said: “In a 2016 trade deal between the government of Syria and ISIS, the Qatirji company was identified as the exclusive agent for providing supplies to ISIS-controlled areas, including oil and other commodities.”
According to an Israeli official, Mohammad Katerji had also connections with high-ranking members of the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah, and had sent hundreds of millions of dollars to the organization. The official stated that this includes transferring millions of dollars to Hezbollah ever since Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas went to war in October, and that Katerji’s murder was intended to stop others from engaging in such actions. Additionally, the official talked under anonymity.
Between 2018 and 2020, the US, UK, and EU slapped sanctions on the Katerji brothers and a portion of their commercial ventures due to their unlawful oil trade and support of Assad‘s regime.
Israel has hit targets in Syria on several occasions, including the airports in Aleppo and Damascus. The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began on October 7 and has been raging between Hezbollah and Israeli forces almost every day since.
Since October, Israel has murdered high-ranking Hezbollah members; nonetheless, Assad’s inner circle and government officials have not been targeted. However, Israel hardly ever admits that it conducts operations against Syria.
