Syria's Assad replaces murdered Hama governor: SANA

President Bashar al-Assad has replaced the governor of Hama province who was killed in a car bombing claimed by Islamist group Al-Nusra Front, Syria's official news agency SANA reported today.
Ghassan Omar Khalaf was named governor of the central province, which is in parts controlled by anti-regime rebels, the agency said, without further details.
His predecessor Anas Abdel Razzaq al-Naem was killed on August 25 in Hama city.
He had been named four months after the March 2011 outbreak of the revolt against Assad, replacing a governor who was sacked following mass protests in Hama that were later crushed by government troops.

Al-Nusra Front, composed of jihadists, claimed the car-bomb attack, saying it was to avenge the alleged poison gas attacks on August 21 near Damascus that killed hundreds.
Assad's father and predecessor Hafez al-Assad brutally put down a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama city in 1982, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people.