Exclusive report details Iranian general’s 2019 confrontation with Syrian security chief; Al-Shibl’s fatal 2024 car crash described by witnesses as a targeted assassination.
A leaked transcript reveals that the late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani directly accused Luna Al-Shibl, a senior adviser to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, of being a spy years before her death in a suspicious car crash, according to a report by Al-Majalla magazine.
The transcript details a late-2019 confrontation in Damascus where Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, questioned Syria’s National Security Bureau chief Ali Mamlouk after seeing Al-Shibl. After Mamlouk identified her as the president’s adviser, Soleimani pressed further, citing a dramatic drop from a former salary of “ten thousand dollars” to her current Syrian salary. “Does it make sense for someone to leave ten thousand dollars for five hundred thousand pounds? She is a spy,” Soleimani stated, according to the document. The report notes that both Soleimani and Maher Al-Assad, the president’s brother, had warned the inner circle about Al-Shibl.
Al-Shibl died on July 6, 2024, days after what officials called a traffic accident. However, Al-Majalla reports that the minimal damage to her armored BMW and eyewitness accounts suggest an assassination. Witnesses described a vehicle ramming hers, followed by an assailant who struck her head, causing fatal paralysis. Her bodyguard was allegedly arrested at the hospital after attempting to recount events.
The Syrian presidency’s brief death announcement was followed by a sparsely attended funeral. President Al-Assad did not attend, fueling further speculation about the circumstances surrounding the death of his once-trusted adviser.
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