How unknown hitmen Hamad Assaad and Salim Hamze sparked Sydney gang war

A teenage hitman driven by “bloodlust” murdered a drug dealer, tried twice to kill a gang boss and was still wreaking havoc when he was himself shot dead.

A teenage hitman driven by “bloodlust” murdered a drug dealer, tried twice to kill a gang boss and was still wreaking havoc when he was himself shot dead beside his father.

The full story of Salim Hamze’s reign of terror over Sydney’s streets – which began just a few months after his 18th birthday – can now be told for the first time, in a new animated and interactive story at dailytelegraph.com.au which retraces some of the biggest moments in the city’s underworld war.

The attacks by Hamze – which included the murder of rival drug runner Shady Kanj – eventually resulted in his own assassination in 2021.

“He (Hamze) was simply out of control,” an underworld source said.

“There was just a bloodlust in him – you can’t really blame them (for killing him), they had to take him out.”

READ MORE: Watch interactives on how the bloody murders unfolded

Hamad “The Executioner” Assaad and Salim Hamze were linked by blood and death.

The Daily Telegraph’s new interactive story also draws a unique link from Hamze back through the years to another man who, at a similarly young age, built up a reputation as a dangerous man on the streets — Hamad “The Executioner” Assaad.

One of the links between Hamze and Assaad was their murder attempts on members of the Alahmad family.

Hamze shot at Asaad Alahmad on two occasions, once hitting him in the neck outside his home and another time peppering a ute he was sitting in with bullets, as it drove along a street in Sydney’s west.

Both incidents led to an escalation in tensions between the Hamze/Hamzy crime clan and the Alameddines.

Asaad Alahmad was targeted twice by Salim Hamze.

The link between Assaad and the Alahmad family dates back to 2007. For the man who would eventually become known as “The Executioner”, it was his first major involvement in badness.

On a cold morning in August 2007, Assaad and another man pulled up in Aubrey St, South Granville, where they waited for Mohamad Alahmad – Asaad Alahmad’s father – to head off to work.

As the businessman walked out of his home and got into a BWM sedan in the driveway, Assaad launched a fatal attack.

He would later be charged with murder and face a trial, only to be found not guilty.

But to this day there is no doubt in the minds of police who investigated it that he was the killer.

Innocent bystander Ramadan Osman was shot in the head.

One of those investigating police also told how they blamed the tragic death of Mohamad Alahmad for the downfall of his son Asaad, who was then only 14, but is now behind bars after recently pleading guilty to offences including supplying a commercial quantity of drugs and directing activities of a criminal group.

“Mohamad wasn’t a gangster at all, he was a good man, and he wanted his children to grow up and be in business,” the officer said. “So it’s very sad what has happened to his son.”

The murder of Mohamad Alahmad lit the fire for violence within Assaad.

Over the next eight years he established himself as a well-known name in Sydney’s underworld and made some high-profile connections.

Michael Ibrahim was another target in the tit-for-tat gang war.

But he continued to be a danger to anyone he considered a rival.

In early 2015, he drove into the CBD and opened fire on Michael Ibrahim, while later that year he shot at Pasquale Barbaro – neither attack proved fatal.

By this point Assaad was so dangerous he figured there was no point hiding it and decided to have “executioner” tattooed on his chest.

He also got “the souls I have taken will never haunt me … only the ones I haven’t will” inked on him.

But Assaad then became so desperate to live up to his nickname of “The Executioner” that he claimed credit for ­murders he did not commit, such as the assassination of Walid “Wally” Ahmad.

Notorious gangster Pasquale Barbaro became embroiled in the story of the Executioner and The Kid.

It did not pay off and on the morning of Tuesday, October 25, 2016, Assaad was himself killed. There were many suspects to his shooting and while police never had the evidence to charge him, senior sources within the cops say they know who one of the killers was — rival crime boss, Mejid Hamzy.

Hamzy is another link between Assaad and Salim Hamze. Four years after he is believed to have carried out the hit on Assaad, Mejid Hamzy was himself shot dead in Condell Park – sparking a war with the Alameddines.

It also sparked young Salim Hamze’s efforts to try and prove himself to his distant relatives.

NSW Police quickly became aware of Hamze’s role in the tit-for-tat conflict, and several police sources confirmed intelligence about his attacks on Asaad Alahmad and Shady Kanj.

Mejid Hamzy was murdered near his Condell Park home.

Shady Kanj was gunned down.

But, despite their best efforts to stop Hamze from himself becoming a murder victim, police could not protect Salim from himself.

On a sunny morning in late-October 2021, just moments after arriving at his father Toufik’s home on Osgood Street in Guildford to go to work together, Salim Hamze would be killed.

Tragically, Toufik would be killed alongside him.

“The father died for the sins of the son,” Homicide Squad Commander Danny Doherty would later say about Toufik’s death.

Their lives ending in murder was the final link between Salim Hamze and Hamad Assaad.