Syrian rebels have claimed capturing Housam al-Assad, the cousin of President Bashar al-Assad, the Saudi-owned news channel Al Arabiya reported on Sunday.

Assad’s cousin was arrested by the al-Farouq brigade of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Sheikh Adnan Al Arour, a Sunni Muslim preacher and a major Salafist leader in Syria, announced on his Twitter account.

“Housam al-Assad, the cousin of Bashar has been captured,” Sheikh Arour said.

The 73-year-old Arour fled Syria under the rule of Hafez Al Assad following the 1982 massacre in his hometown of Hama and settled in Saudi Arabia ever since. He has become one of the symbolic figures of the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime.

[link to en.rian.ru]