Claim MISLEADING

No truth to the execution of the interior minister's brother Omar Hassan Khattab

No truth to the execution of the interior minister's brother Omar Hassan Khattab
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Damascus,_Syria,_The_Umayyad_Mosque,_The_Courtyard,_Islamic_Art.jpg

Pages and accounts on social media circulated a report claiming that the cause of death of Omar Hassan Khattab, known as Abu Jaafar, the brother of the interior minister, was his execution over internal doctrinal disputes.

Circulating post alleging the execution of the interior minister's brother

The fact-checking team contacted a source close to the interior minister to verify the circulating reports, and the source denied the rumors about the execution of the minister's brother, confirming in an exclusive statement to Kashaf that the real cause of death was his struggle with cancer, and that the death had no connection to any security events or disputes.

Why is this claim misleading?

Content distortion: The claim exploited the death of Omar Hassan Khattab from cancer and reframed it within a security context by alleging he was executed over doctrinal disputes, to suggest internal purges were taking place.