The former Syrian defense minister was found dead in his home a day after he was fired by President Bashar Assad, Syrian opposition Web sites reported Tuesday. General Ali Habib was dismissed by Assad on Monday who said the Chief of Staff Dawood Rajha would take his place. The official Syrian news agency SANA said Habib suffered from ill health. There was no confirmation of the report on Arab Web sites. However the London based Asharq al-Awsat said the reason Assad fired Habib was because he objected to the deployment of military forces in the town of Hama which has been subjected to brutal military attacks on the civilian population in the past week.
