Brother of bikie boss Tarek Zahed laid to rest under heavy police guard at Rookwood cemetery

The brother of Comanchero boss Tarek Zahed who died in a gangland hit at Bodyfit Gym has been laid to rest under the watchful eye of a heavy police presence.

Heavily-tattooed mourners gathered in drizzling rain at Rookwood Cemetery, in Sydney‘s south west, on Friday to farewell 39-year-old Omar Zahed.

Omar died in a hail of at least 20 bullets aimed at himself and Tarek, 41, as they left  the Auburn gym in southwestern Sydney on Tuesday night.

He died at the scene and Tarek was rushed to hospital, fighting for his life.   

Following a service inside the prayer room at Lakemba mosque, Omar’s body arrived at the grave just after 11am inside a green coffin draped with a tapestry inscribed with Arabic script.

Mourners, some with their faces partly obscured by balaclavas, arrived at the gravesite and embraced Muslim friends and family of the slain man.

Among them was underworld identiry Ahmed Elomar, the brother of ISIS terrorist Mohamed Elomar.  

Elomar told Daily Mail Australia that Omar’s fatal shooting was evidence of the ‘shocking state’ of affairs for young Muslim men in Sydney.

‘This generation is all over the place,’ he said.

‘What happened, who knows?’.  

Mr Elomar said he had been a good friend of Omar who he had known in and out of jail.

A former champion boxer, Elomar served three years in prison for assaulting a policeman at the 2012 Hyde Park riots.

At 11.15am the back of the hearse was opened and an imam began conducting prayers among the male mourners while the womenheld back.

Two minutes later, under a drizzle of light rainfall, his coffin was taken out and carried by eight male pal bearers to a freshly dug grave.

Omar’s body was removed from the coffin, which was inscribed in Arabic with the words ‘every soul shall taste death’ – as further prayers were uttered by the sombre-faced attendees.

A mourner, who did not want to be identified, told Daily Mail Australia that Tarek was ‘out of a coma, but he’s still not talking’.

Tarek has undergone surgery to remove ten rounds from his head and body, and is now in a serious but stable condition. 

Police are investigating whether the brazen attempted gangland hit may have been an inside job resulting from an internal power struggle within the Comanchero. 

Police had warned the brothers as recently as Thursday last week that their lives were at risk, however their advice went unheeded. 

Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said police are investigating possible motives for the assassination attempt, refusing to rule out the possibility of an inside job.

‘We can’t discount an internal conflict,’ he told reporters. 

‘There is opportunities for people to take their place and there’s a real power struggle within organised crime organisations.’

A second line of inquiry is whether there is any connection to the shooting death of Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad almost two weeks ago.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb noted Tarek had a target on his back due to his senior role within underworld crime networks.

‘He’s a senior member of the Comancheros… Australia’s largest criminal organisation,’ she said.

A police source earlier confirmed the hit on Tarek was considered the ‘biggest of the year’ in the criminal world. 

‘Whoever has done this is game to go toe-to-toe with the Comancheros and nobody does that,’ they said.

Raptor Squad – a taskforce of specialist officers responsible for monitoring outlaw criminal groups in NSW – will receive a boost of 30 new officers, taking the team to 145, to help fight organised crime.

Commissioner Webb said there will be a targeted, intelligence based operation to combat increasing crime rates.

‘We’re not targeting mums and dads,’ she said twice. ‘It’s a small number of people causing fear and we know who they are.’

She insisted police had ‘not lost control’ of the crime networks and vowed to stop at nothing to ensure the community continues to feel safe and protected. 

Commissioner Webb noted Tarek was warned just last Thursday about a legitimate threat to his life and was told to leave NSW as soon as possible.

‘He went about his usual business, his normal routine.’

Police sources claim the Comanchero are in bed with the Alameddine crime family and help to supply the network.

By extension, the Alameddines rivals the Hamzy family are considered enemies of the Comancheros.

But the Hamzy network is in a world of pain itself as top members have been ‘picked off like flies’ in recent months.

Detectives and forensic investigators remained at the scene of the crime on Wednesday morning, collecting bags of evidence and examining the surrounds.

A Volkswagon GTI sport model remains parked in the cordoned off area of the complex, while more detectives are at a second site several blocks away, believed to be where a burnt out luxury getaway car was found.

Bullet holes riddle the entrance of the gym, which is closed for business while the investigation is underway.

Police confirmed there are two other crime scenes – one in Berala and another in Greenacre – which are subject to investigations.

Burnt out Audis were found at each location within minutes of the hit taking place.