Local sources reported killing a high-ranking officer in the ranks of the regime forces in an ambush in the Syrian desert, after he was captured with his escorts and dismembered by unknown assailants who found on his phone recordings documenting his participation in the torture of Syrian detainees.

Activists and loyal Facebook pages stated that the lieutenant-colonel (Hassan Asif Bey) was found dead at the tribal gate of Palmyra, after he was "linked to four Hilux cars and cut into four parts."

Asif Bek, according to the Orient Net website, hails from Jableh city (one of the most prominent strongholds of Al-Assad militia), and he was captured the day before yesterday with his driver and companion in a tight ambush in Homs desert at the hands of gunmen believed to be from ISIS cells.

According to the networks, video recordings were found on the officer's phone while he was torturing Syrian civilian prisoners during their detention in the prisons of Al-Assad militia's prisons, while Al-Assad regime doesn’t admit its military losses, but loyal networks document the military deaths on an ongoing basis.