Israeli drone strike on Lebanese-Syrian border kills pro-government Syrian businessman

An Israeli drone strike on a car near the Lebanese-Syrian border on Monday killed a prominent Syrian businessman sanctioned by the United States and with close ties to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, pro-government media and a representative of an Iran-backed group reported.

Mohammed Baraa Katerji was killed when his car was hit by a drone near Saboura, a few kilometers inside Syria. It appears that the drone had entered the country from Lebanon. Israel’s air force has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in recent years, mainly targeting members of Iranian-backed groups and the Syrian military. But government figures have rarely been hit.

The attack also came amid almost daily exchanges of fire since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, in early October.

A representative of an Iran-backed group said Katerji died instantly in his SUV on the highway between Lebanon and Syria. The representative spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The pro-government daily Al-Watan quoted anonymous “sources” as saying that 48-year-old Katerji was killed in a “Zionist drone attack on his car.” No further details were given.

Rami Abdurrahman, chairman of the UK-based opposition war watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Katerji was killed in a car with Lebanese plates and appeared to have been targeted because he funded the “Syrian resistance” against Israel in the Golan Heights and because he had links to Iran-backed groups in Syria.

Israel has vowed to end the Iranian occupation of its northern neighbor and has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges the attacks.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Katerji in 2018 because he was Assad’s middleman for trading oil with the IS group and for brokering arms shipments from Iraq to Syria.

The U.S. Treasury Department declined requests for comment from The Associated Press. The sanctions imposed on Katerji were authorized by an Obama-era executive order issued in 2011 that bans certain transactions with Syria. A search of the OFAC database shows that the sanctions against Katerji and his company were still in effect at the time of his death.

OFAC said in 2018 that Katerji was responsible for import and export activities in Syria and helped transport weapons and ammunition under the guise of importing and exporting food. These shipments were monitored by the U.S.-designated Syrian Intelligence Directorate, according to OFAC.

It added that the Syria-based Katerji Company is a shipping company that has also shipped weapons from Iraq to Syria. In addition, the Katerji Company was named as the sole agent for supplying oil and other goods to ISIS-controlled areas in a 2016 trade agreement between the Syrian government and ISIS.

Katerji and his brother Hussam – commonly known in Syria as the “Katerji brothers” – entered the oil business a few years after the conflict in the country broke out in March 2011. Hussam Katerji is a former member of the Syrian parliament.