Over the last weekend Islamist forces led by Jabhat an-Nusra and the Islamic Front attacked and finally conquered the town of Kasab, which lays in the north of Syria's Latakia province on the Turkish border. It is a strategically important town, not only because it had been the only border crossing to Turkey left controlled by the regime - but also because it's capture enables a further penetration of the Alawite heartland from the North. Tempered hope in renewed Latakia offensive by Maya Gebeily, Now. Assassination of Hilal al-Assad During the capture of the town Hilal al-Assad, a second cousin of Bashar al -Assad, was killed. Hilal al -Assad himself was the leader of the National Defence Forces in Latakia province . He was the grandchild of Ahmad al -Assad, the older half-brother of Hafiz al -Assad. This branch of the family has a long established reputation for it's criminal activities and Hilal al -Assad was like the proto...