OMM Redaksiyası
Syrian security forces have arrested five former militia and intelligence members affiliated with Bashar al-Assad’s ousted regime over alleged involvement in massacres and serious crimes against civilians, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
The ministry said intelligence-led operations by internal security forces resulted in the arrests.
One of the suspects is Shahin Hamdan al-Shahin, a founder of the Shawaheen Regiment militia. According to the ministry, he began working with the former regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate in 2015 under the command of Suheil al-Hassan, before helping to establish armed groups.
Al-Shahin was directly involved in massacres in eastern Hama province and along the Ithriya-Raqqa road in 2017, the ministry said. It added that he later commanded groups involved in killings, arrests, torture and destruction in Palmyra and areas extending to Deir ez-Zor province until 2019.
In a separate operation, authorities arrested four other former regime members over alleged involvement in massacres and serious violations against civilians.
The ministry named two of them as Nabil Adnan Ismail and Ghazi Mohammed Ismail, commanders of groups in militias affiliated with the former regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate. They were involved in kidnappings, looting and massacres, including incidents in the village of Aqrab, as well as abducting civilians and extorting money from them, it said.
The other two suspects, brothers Taher Youssef al-Mohammed and Talal Youssef al-Mohammed, served with the Air Force Intelligence Directorate and the Scientific Studies and Research Center. The ministry accused them of taking part in repression and arrests, and of using their positions to access detainees’ files and extort their families.
Investigations into all five suspects are continuing before they are referred to judicial authorities, the ministry said.
The arrests come amid ongoing security operations targeting former regime officials and military personnel accused of crimes during Syria’s nearly 14-year conflict. On Sept. 18, Syrian authorities arrested five senior air force officers and commanders who served under Assad, accusing them of planning, directing and carrying out airstrikes on populated areas.
Since Assad was ousted on Dec. 8, 2024, Syria’s new administration has launched operations targeting former regime figures and personnel implicated in abuses during the conflict. Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime forces captured Damascus, ending decades of Baath Party rule.
