Syrian security forces arrested at least 14 former operatives linked to former president Bashar Assad’s regime in Hama on Thursday, accusing them of massacres, torture, kidnappings and other abuses. Seven people were detained in operations in Masyaf and southern Hama, where security forces seized weapons and ammunition, the state-owned Syrian Arab News Agency reported. The accusations aren’t convictions; investigations continue under Syria’s new authorities.
The apparatus under investigation
Authorities separately identified seven other people they apprehended, including Shaheen Hamdan Al-Shaheen, founder of the Al-Shawaheen Regiment militia. They said Al-Shaheen helped establish armed militias after working with the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate in 2015 under Suheil Al-Hassan, a military commander nicknamed “The Tiger.” Al-Shaheen allegedly participated in massacres in eastern Hama and along the Athriya-Raqqa road in 2017. He’s also accused of leading groups responsible for killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and property destruction in Palmyra and Deir Ezzor between 2017 and 2019.
The allegations describe intelligence services and militias working together in a chain of command, with civilians bearing the consequences. Al-Hassan commanded the regime’s Tiger Forces, a network of military units and allied militias that played a major role in government offensives in Aleppo, Hama and eastern Syria. In December 2017, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented intense bombardment by government forces and their allies under Al-Hassan’s command in Hama and Idlib. It reported that at least 41 civilians, including 11 children, died in about four days.
Thursday’s arrests also included Nabil Adnan Ismail and Ghazi Mohammed Ismail, whom investigators identified as former commanders of armed groups affiliated with Air Force Intelligence. They allegedly took part in kidnappings, looting and massacres of civilians, SANA reported. Taher Youssef Al-Mohammed and his brother, Talal Youssef, were detained too. Authorities said they served in Air Force Intelligence and the Scientific Studies and Research Center and took part in repression, arbitrary arrests and extorting money from detainees’ families.
Accountability in official hands
Authorities named the other arrested men as Faisal Badour and Asef Salameh. They said Badour joined pro-regime militias operating in rural Hama and Aleppo in 2012 and became known as the “Tiger’s Cub” because of his treatment of civilians. They said he stayed active until the Assad regime collapsed in December 2024. Salameh reportedly served as a warrant officer in the former regime’s defense factories until 2018.
The Interior Ministry said investigations were continuing and that officials would refer the suspects to the appropriate courts when legal procedures were complete. Syria’s new authorities are pursuing and seeking to hold accountable former regime officials and militia members suspected of abuses during the civil war. Official investigators and courts now handle the process. The people detained remain suspects, and officials haven’t announced an outcome.
The civil war began in 2011 and ended with the fall of Assad and his regime. UN investigators and human rights organizations accused Assad government security and intelligence agencies of widespread arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during the conflict. Those findings frame the current arrests against a record of violence attributed to state security institutions. For now, authorities have announced arrests and allegations. Whether the court process establishes responsibility remains to be seen.