Syrian security forces arrested at least 14 former operatives of Bashar Assad’s regime in Hama on Thursday, accusing them of involvement in massacres, torture, kidnappings of civilians and other abuses, the state-owned Syrian Arab News Agency reported. For families who have waited years to learn what happened to missing relatives, the arrests mark a rare moment of movement toward accountability.
Security forces detained seven suspects in operations in Masyaf and southern Hama, seizing weapons and ammunition, SANA said. Authorities separately identified seven other people apprehended in the sweep.
The Accused
Among them is Shaheen Hamdan Al-Shaheen, founder of the Al-Shawaheen Regiment militia. Authorities said he helped establish wide-reaching armed militias after working with the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate in 2015, under Suheil Al-Hassan, a prominent military commander nicknamed “The Tiger.” He allegedly took part 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.
Nabil Adnan Ismail and Ghazi Mohammed Ismail were also arrested. Investigators identified them as former commanders of armed groups affiliated with Air Force Intelligence, and SANA reported they’re accused of kidnappings, looting and massacres of civilians. Authorities also detained Taher Youssef Al-Mohammed and his brother, Talal Youssef. They said the brothers served in Air Force Intelligence and the Scientific Studies and Research Center, and were involved in repression, arbitrary arrests and extorting money from detainees’ families.
Faisal Badour and Asef Salameh are the last two men named. Authorities said Badour joined pro-regime militias in rural Hama and Aleppo in 2012, earning the name “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 Civilian Toll
These accusations land in a region that has already seen the cost of the forces involved. Al-Hassan commanded the regime’s Tiger Forces, a network of military units and allied militias that played a major role in government offensives during Syria’s civil war, including operations 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.
That’s one documented episode in a war that began in 2011 and is now in its fifteenth year since the start. 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.
The Path to Accountability
The Interior Ministry said investigations are continuing and the suspects will go before the appropriate courts when legal procedures are complete. Syria’s new authorities are pursuing former regime officials and militia members suspected of abuses during the civil war, which ended with the fall of Assad’s regime.
The base reporting doesn’t say what those court proceedings will look like or what protections the accused will have. Those details matter. Accountability that skips due process risks becoming another round of score-settling.
Why This Matters:
The arrests reach into the hardest question facing any country emerging from mass violence: how to hold perpetrators to account without feeding new cycles of retribution. One year after the Assad regime collapsed, Syrian authorities are naming suspects and promising court referrals, a step many victims’ families have long sought. Human rights organizations and UN investigators have documented arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings across the war. Whether these cases produce transparent, fair trials will shape whether survivors see justice or merely another show of force. The answer will also influence whether Syria’s fragile transition can build trust among communities that suffered, and in some cases took part in, years of brutal conflict.