Syrian regime’s “oil godfather” killed in drone attack

A Syrian businessman known in the region as an “oil godfather” of Bashir al-Assad’s regime was reportedly killed in an Israeli strike near the border with Lebanon, Kurdish media reported late Monday, citing a human rights group.

According to reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Baraa al-Qaterji, a Syrian businessman and politician considered a confidant of Assad and subject to Washington’s sanctions, was killed when an Israeli drone hit the car he was traveling in.

The suspected Israeli airstrike occurred near a border crossing on the Beirut-Damascus road. Another person was killed, but his identity was not disclosed.

Israeli authorities have not commented on the airstrike.

Last week, a similar drone attack along the same road, also believed to have been carried out by the Israelis, resulted in the death of a former bodyguard of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

According to human rights groups, Al-Qaterji was the key figure responsible for sourcing oil from Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria and supplying it to the Assad regime.

He had become the target of Israeli attacks because of his role in funding pro-Iranian militias in Syria and their attacks on Israel, as tensions continue to escalate along the Israel-Lebanon border.

In April, the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, was completely razed to the ground in a suspected Israeli attack, killing six people.

This attack represents an escalation that could lead to further volatility in oil prices as the market assesses the likelihood of a threat to global oil supply or demand.

At the time of writing at 4:43 p.m. ET on Monday, shortly after the attacks became known, Brent crude was down 0.24 percent at $84.83, while the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 0.38 percent at $81.90.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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