Brigadier General Mostafa Kamel Hammad of the Syrian Arab Army (1942 – 1988)
BEIRUT, LEBANON (5:10 P.M.) – War is an art, especially wars conducted at the intelligence level. Such wars require different methods to the ordinary conflicts between armed forces.
The Syrian war against groups of the Muslim Brotherhood started in the early 1980s and one of the Syrian generals who had a crucial role in obliterating the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria was Brigadier General Mostafa Kamel Hammad.
Early life
Mostafa Kamel Hammad was born in 1942 in the town of Oghiq in the province of Aleppo to a Sunni family. In 1960 he joined the Syrian Military Academy in Homs. Brigadier General Mostafa Kamel Hammad was married to a lady from Al-Yassen in Latakia, and had 4 kids; 3 daughters and a son.
Role in obliterating the Muslim Brotherhood
Hammad was approached by a captain who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Cpt. Fawzi al-Ghazawi in 1982 to help the movement arm itself for what they called “Zero Hour” but Brigadier General, bound by his military code, informed the high command of a plot that was being put into place. In turn, he was order to bring the traitors into a trap that was set to them in the officer’s club in Tartous; he set about this task.
Hammad invited Muslim Brotherhood conspirators to the officer’s club – ostensibly for further planning and coordination. Here, Syrian military intelligence arrested the conspirators and sent them to an infamous desert prison in Palmyra where they confessed to the charges of their relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and of plotting against the Syrian state.
After their confession, and their guilt of high treason they were executed by Brigadier General Hammad in accordance with military law; their names were added to the so-called ‘List of Shame.’
Afterwards, the brigadier general resumed his task in discovering and eliminating traitors within the ranks of the Syrian military; he was to discovered hundreds of them. In this pursuit he managed to capture and later executed around 400 ranks who were found guilty of high treason – among them Adnan Aqlea, who was captured in an intelligence operation that will be shared later.
Career
After graduating the Syrian Military Academy, Hammad worked as an instructor in the armed forces school. A number of highly-ranked and placed Syrian officers were trained by him such as the Director of the Syrian Military Intelligence General Mohammad Mahla, the Commander of the Syrian 3rd Corps General Mohammad Khaddour and the Syrian Minister of Interior General Mohammad al-Sha’ar.
Generally, intelligence operations are different and more complex and the Muslim Brotherhood group had indeed infiltrated into the ranks of the Syrian military.
But perhaps one of the Brotherhood’s biggest mistakes was attempting to recruit Brigadier General Hammad after assuming that since he is a Sunni and not a member of al-Ba’ath political party he will unquestionably join their ranks. When they approached him, they gave him a financial bribe and a promise of a higher more powerfully placed rank in the Syrian military after their success.
However, Hammad rushed to inform the commander of the Syrian Military Intelligence at the time General Ghazi Kan’aan; who in turn sent him to meet with General Ali Duba and then he met with late Commander in Chief President Hafiz al-Assad.
Commander in Chief issued his orders to transfer Hammad from the Syrian military to the Syrian intelligence where he was appointed deputy director of the Syrian Military Intelligence in Latakia in 1983.
Death
On day in 1988 during duty, Brigadier General Mostafa Kamel Hammad was heading to the National Hospital in Homs and a bus driver collided with his car killing him instantly, later Syrian intelligence detained the bus driver and during the investigation he admitted to  belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Legacy
Brigadier General Mostafa Kamel Hammad managed a lot of military operations and he was well known for his heroic stands, he treated his soldiers as brothers and stood up with them during the worst situations, using his skills, strength and experience Brigadier General Mostafa Kamel Hammad had a major role in eliminating the Muslim Brotherhood militia in Syria inside and outside the Syrian Arab Army, he left a big influence to everyone who knew him, and until today Brigadier General Mostafa Kamel Hammad is an icon to follow in the Syrian Arab Army.
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