Assef Shawkat - Telegraph Shortly afterwards, however, Rifaat deployed the Defence Company in an apparent coup attempt. When this failed, he was exiled to Paris. Shawkat, meanwhile, had remained loyal to Hafez Assad and was promoted to colonel. He would undoubtedly have remained an obscure, if successful, career officer had he not married Bushra, Hafez Assad's only daughter. The fact that Shawkat was a divorced father of five 10 years her senior did little to endear him to Bushra's notably hot-headed brothers. The eldest, Basil, briefly had Shawkat jailed to stymie the match. But when Basil died in a car accident in 1994, the couple eloped, and Hafez eventually condoned their marriage. Shawkat immediately set about cultivating Bashar, first in line following Basil's death , and after Hafez's death in 2000 it was to Shawkat that Bashar turned for help in negotiating the fragmented and tentacular array of intelligence agencies, ministries, military and paramilitary groups that characterises Syria's security structure. Shawkat was promoted head of military security . Then, shortly after the blast that killed Hariri, he was promoted to head of military intelligence. His reputation took a blow in 2008 when Imad Mughniyah, a senior Hizbollah figure effectively under Shawkat's protection in Damascus, was killed by a car bomb, possibly planted by Israel. In what some saw as a reprimand for the security lapse, Shawkat was moved to deputy defence minister in 2010. The change put him at the heart of efforts to counter the uprising that began in the of spring 2011. He was a major target for rebels, and in May this year they reported that a poisoning plot had claimed him as one of its victims. The regime said that he had survived, but that he was in a meeting yesterday with the defence minister, Daoud Rajiha, and the head of the crisis management office, Hassan Turkomani, that was targeted by a bomb. He is survived by his wife and their four children. Assef Shawkat born 1950, died July 18 2012