Damascus: Lt. Gen. Nassif retires

Well-informed sources in Damascus said on Sunday that the chairman of the internal security branch at the general intelligence department, Lt. Gen. Muhammad Nassif, was recently retired at "the power of the law which governs the service of officers in the Syrian army and armed forces," which means that Nassif has reached retirement age and had used all years of service permitted under his rank.

At the end of January, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad enacted a decree to extend the legal age for persons who occupy the posts of defense minister and the army chief of staff to 70 years instead of 67 and to transfer them from reserve services to actual service.

Among the beneficiaries from this amendment were Minister of Defense Lt. Gen. Mustafa Tlass and the Syrian army's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ali Aslan.

Aslan acquired his present ranking post in July 1998 after the retirement of the first Lt. Gen. Hekmat al-Shehabi who reached the age of retirement. Al-Shehabi, however, still occupies the post of member of the regional leadership of the ruling Baath Party in Syria.