Syria's interior minister commits suicide

Syria’s interior minister, who ran Lebanon as security chief until 2003, committed suicide today, days before the expected release of a UN report into the assassination of a former Lebanese leader.

“Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan committed suicide in his office before noon,” the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

“Authorities are carrying out the necessary investigation into the incident.”

The news agency report did not mention the looming UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

But Kenaan was intelligence chief in Lebanon from the 1980s until 2003, presiding over Syria’s control of its neighbouring country. He reportedly was questioned by UN investigators in the probe of Hariri’s murder.