Image Source:
Farah Jdid Archive
Ghassan Jadid was one of the founders of the Syrian Army who volunteered in the first Arab-Israeli War of 1948, serving with the Army of Deliverance. He also served as military attache to the Syrian UN Delegation and returned to Syria, becoming commander of the Reserve Military School. A charismatic officer and a ranking member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), he created a strong popularity base in the Syrian Army. Jadid, however, was implicated in the 1955 assassination of Deputy Chief-of-Staff Colonel Adnan al-Malki and fled to Lebanon. A gunman assassinated him in Ras Beirut in 1956. It was immediately revealed that the assassin was an agent of Syrian intelligence, commissioned for the job by intelligence director, Abdul Hamid Sarraj.