Syria! Syrian security forces arrest former al-Quds Brigade commander over war crimes, Key suspect in notorious Tadamon massacre during Syria civil war arrested, Three dead dozens injured in Syria during clashes between Alawites and counterdemonstrators, Syria dismantles drug trafficking network in joint operation with Iraq, Syrian security forces arrest 235 ISIS suspects in three months, Last convoy of Afrin IDPs in Syria’s Qamishli return home, Syrian teen arrested in Germany over suspected Daesh-inspired plot, 3 Australian women back from Syria face slavery and terrorism charges over alleged IS links, Syria arrests deposed regime security official over violations, Arrest of wanted linked to ousted regime militia in Daraa, Austria tries former Syrian intelligence chief over torture allegations, Syria dismantles international drug-trafficking network seizes captagon shipment, Syria arrests former Assad-era air force chief of staff, Syrian authorities arrest ex-intelligence officer tied to a leaked video of a massacre, Syria’s first public trial of Assad-era officials opens in Damascus, Syria trial seen as first step on long road for Assad’s victims, Syrian security forces arrest ISIS member in Deir Ezzor, Ex-Syrian intelligence officer appears in UK court charged with crimes against humanity, Photos show filming of Ramadan TV drama series on the war-scarred streets of Syria’s Aleppo, الأمن العام يعتقل صانع محتوى من السويداء أثناء عودته من لبنان

2026.6.14 Syria dismantles drug trafficking network in joint operation with Iraq
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Syria’s Ministry of Interior on Sunday announced the dismantling of an organized international drug trafficking network and the arrest of several of its members during a joint operation with Iraq.
In a statement, the ministry said that Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Department, working alongside Iraqi authorities, conducted a series of coordinated and simultaneous operations in the governorates of Homs and Deir ez-Zor.
The operation resulted in the dismantling of an organized international drug trafficking network, the arrest of a number of its members, and the seizure of 800,000 captagon pills and 60 kilograms of hashish that were prepared for smuggling and distribution, the statement said.
The ministry added that the operation reflects the high level of coordination and intelligence cooperation between the relevant agencies in both countries.
No further details were provided regarding the identities of those arrested or the intended destination of the seized narcotics.

2026.6.9 Syrian security forces arrest 235 ISIS suspects in three months
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – The Syrian Ministry of Interior on Tuesday announced that security forces arrested 235 individuals suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) over the past three months.
In a statement, the ministry said security operations also led to the dismantling of seven ISIS-affiliated cells across several governorates.
According to the ministry, those detained include 198 Syrians and 37 foreign nationals. The operations were carried out in the governorates of Hama, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Homs, and Damascus.
The ministry added that security forces seized 120 pieces of equipment during the raids, including 25 weapons, six vehicles, 22 explosive-related devices, and 67 electronic devices.
It noted that the security campaign began in March and targeted ISIS-linked cells in the town of Abu Kamal and surrounding areas, extending to the al-Busayrah countryside in Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
The Interior Ministry said it would continue pursuing activities linked to extremist organizations or any actions that threaten security and stability, in coordination with relevant security agencies.

2026.6.8 Seven years on, Abdul Baset al-Sarout remains defining icon of the Syrian revolution
Damascus – Syrians on Sunday marked the seventh anniversary of the death of Syrian revolution figure Abdul Baset al-Sarout, whose life and sacrifice continue to embody the spirit of resistance, resilience and unwavering commitment that defined a pivotal chapter of the country’s modern history.
Al-Sarout, a former goalkeeper for Al-Karamah Club and Syria’s youth national team, rose from the stadiums to become one of the most powerful voices of the early protests in Homs, where his chants and public presence helped ignite demonstrations and sustain morale during the most violent stages of the uprising.
Those who accompanied him throughout the revolution said he remained a symbol of courage despite immense personal loss, including the killing of close family members and companions. They described him as a figure who never withdrew from the streets or the struggle, moving from peaceful protest to armed resistance while maintaining his influence among demonstrators.
Activists, journalists and former comrades said his impact extended far beyond the battlefield, shaping the identity and spirit of a generation that rallied around calls for change.
Born in 1991, al-Sarout was killed on June 8, 2019, at the age of 27. For many Syrians, his death remains a defining moment, and his legacy continues to stand as a symbol of sacrifice, defiance and hope.

2026.6.2 Austria tries former Syrian intelligence chief over torture allegations
QAMISHLI, Syria – A former Syrian intelligence chief who served in the northern city of Raqqa on Monday appeared before a court in Austria, facing charges of torture, sexual abuse, and other crimes allegedly committed against opponents of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the early years of the Syrian conflict.
The trial, which is expected to continue for a month, is among a limited number of cases in which European courts have exercised jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed by officials of the former Syrian government.
The main defendant, identified under Austrian privacy laws only as Khaled al-Halabi, headed the General Intelligence Directorate branch in Raqqa between 2011 and 2013, during a period marked by widespread anti-government protests and armed conflict.
Prosecutors accuse al-Halabi of overseeing torture and mistreatment of detainees held by Syrian intelligence services. A second defendant, a former senior police official in Raqqa known by the nickname “Angel of Death,” faces charges including serious bodily harm, aggravated coercion, and sexual assault.
If convicted, both men could face prison sentences of up to 10 years. The defendants pleaded not guilty and denied participating in torture or other abuses.
When questioned by the court, al-Halabi rejected allegations that violence was used against detainees under his authority. “Impossible. That would not be in my interest. It is also not how I was raised,” he told the presiding judge.
According to prosecutors, detainees were held in overcrowded cells and subjected to systematic abuse, including beatings and other forms of ill-treatment. Khaled al-Halabi denied witnessing or authorizing such practices and said detainees were not kept overnight at the intelligence facility.
He also denied any knowledge of the so-called “magic carpet,” a torture device reportedly used in Syrian detention centers.
Al-Halabi arrived in Austria in 2015 and was granted asylum after leaving Syria. During the hearing, he declined to confirm reports that intelligence agencies assisted his departure from the country, saying only that relatives had helped arrange his travel.
The case follows a series of war crimes prosecutions in Europe targeting former Syrian officials accused of human rights violations during Syria’s conflict, which began in 2011.

2026.5.11 Syrian teen arrested in Germany over suspected Daesh-inspired plot
BERLIN: A 17-year-old Syrian was arrested in Hamburg on suspicion of planning an attack likely inspired by Daesh, German prosecutors said Monday.
The teenager is suspected of wanting to try to kill “unbelievers” in a shopping center, bar or police station using explosives, Molotov cocktails or a knife, prosecutors said in a statement.
They added that a raid on a property used by the suspect had turned up fertilizer, a liquid barbecue lighter, a balaclava and a knife.
He was arrested on May 7 by a specialized Hamburg police unit.
Information from the German intelligence services and federal police was “crucial” to the investigation, the statement said.
Prosecutors have ordered a psychiatric evaluation of the suspect while the investigation continues.
The teenager is also suspected of “financing terrorism,” although it is not clear exactly what form this took.
Germany has been on high alert for attacks after several deadly incidents in recent years, some motivated by extremist ideology, others carried out by people found to have psychological problems.

2026.5.8 3 Australian women back from Syria face slavery and terrorism charges over alleged IS links
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Three Australian women were refused bail when they appeared in courts on Friday charged with slavery and terrorism offenses after they arrived home from Syria with another 10 others whom police allege are linked to the Islamic State group.
The four women and nine children, who have spent years in Roj camp in the Syrian desert, landed on two Qatar Airways flights from Doha on Thursday despite the Australian government warning they would face charges if they returned.
Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmed, 31, were charged in a Melbourne court in relation to allegations that their family bought a female Yazidi slave for $10,000, police said in a statement.
Their lawyers said they would apply for both women to be released on bail on Monday. Neither woman spoke during their brief court appearance. Bail was formally denied.
Abbas, her husband and children traveled in 2014 to Syria, which was then the center of IS’s co-called caliphate, police allege.
Abbas was complicit in buying the slave, who was kept in the family home, police allege.
The mother was charged with four crimes against humanity under Australian law, and the daughter was charged with two slavery crimes. Each charge carries a potential penalty of 25 years in prison.

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2026.4.30 Syria trial seen as first step on long road for Assad’s victims
The highly charged scenes in a Damascus court on Sunday, as the first official of the former Assad regime went on trial, were a stark reminder of the clamour for justice among the families of its countless victims. While some say it is a start, it has also raised concerns over the will of Syria’s new authorities to bring the many perpetrators to account.
“People want to hang Atef Najib!” the crowd chanted inside the Palace of Justice, where the former head of the Political Security intelligence agency in the southern city of Deraa faced charges of “crimes against the Syrian nation”.
There were also shouts of “Signs of victory have arrived from Houran”, a slogan sung during the uprising, referring to the region surrounding Deraa, where anti-government protests began in 2011 before spiralling into a civil war.
Families of the victims of the regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad gathered in the courtroom, waiting for Najib – Assad’s first cousin – to be brought before the judges. This was the first trial in a court specially designed for such cases.
One mother sat on a bench quietly, tears rolling down her face, as others around her chanted “death and no humiliation”, another slogan used during the uprising, and “Syria for us and not for the Assad regime”. Another woman behind her wiped tears from her own face.
This was a moment when many families felt justice was prevailing, allowing their relatives killed under Assad to finally rest in peace.
Najib walked into the courtroom dressed in a black-and-white prison uniform. He took his place, standing behind bars as the families looked on.
He is being prosecuted for crimes committed against the people of Deraa in the uprising. It began there after security forces violently cracked down on protesters who took to the streets after several boys had been arrested and tortured for writing anti-government graffiti inspired by the “Arab Spring”.
Najib is reported to have met representatives of the boys’ families at the time and said: “Forget your children. If you want children, make more children. If you don’t know how, bring us your women and we will make them for you.”
Under Assad’s regime, human rights activists and protesters were prosecuted at the Palace of Justice, with many of them sentenced to death after unfair trials. Now, by a twist of fate, former officials are facing trial in the same place.
Nuha al-Masri, a 54-year-old lawyer from Deraa, was one of those who filed a case against Najib and was in court to see him.
Masri’s brother was killed when Najib ordered security forces to crush protests in March 2011.
“I felt that today we started to get justice. It tells everyone that no-one is exempt from justice. It was a dream to see a regime member behind bars,” she said.
But while Najib’s trial is a milestone for many families, there are those who criticise it as a show to appease the public.
Anwar al-Bunni is a Syrian human rights lawyer and head of the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research.
He played a key role in gathering evidence for the trial of former Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan in Germany in 2020-22. That trial, which was the world’s first criminal case brought over state-led torture in Syria, saw Raslan sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of crimes against humanity over the murder of 58 people and the torture of more than 4,000.
“Syrian law has no legislation [for prosecuting] war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he told the BBC. “They are ridiculing his [Najib’s] crimes and ridiculing the victims with this trial.”
“This should have been done when there is a law passed by the parliament for war crimes and conducted by a different body like the Commission for Transitional Justice, but not with this court with no experienced judges,” he added.
Zahra Barazi, vice-president of the National Commission for Transitional Justice set up in 2025 to deal with past abuses, said they were working closely with the ministry of justice on the case.
“We drafted a Transitional Justice law to ensure that in the future once the law is passed by the parliament, new charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes will be added to the charges,” she added. “The court itself is a specialised court with specialised Transitional Justice judges.”
Syria’s new Islamist government has arrested several members of the Assad regime. The most recent was Amjad Youssef, a key suspect in the Tadamon massacre in 2013, when 41 civilians were blindfolded, shot dead and thrown into a pit.
But there is still mounting criticism of the government’s approach to dealing with those from the former authorities accused of serious crimes.
For example, a former commander of a pro-Assad militia, Fadi Saqr, has been linked to the killings in Tadamon but is now working with the government’s civil peace commission, raising concerns among activists about accountability.
For victims of the former regime though, the opening of this trial has brought some of them closure, and hope that the path towards justice has finally begun.

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2026.4.24 Key suspect in notorious Tadamon massacre during Syria civil war arrested
A key suspect in one of the most notorious killings of the Syrian civil war has been arrested, Syria’s interior minister has said.
Amjad Youssef was wanted over the mass killing of civilians in April 2013 in the Tadamon district of Damascus.
Footage emerged in 2022 showing Syrian soldiers leading victims, bound and blindfolded, to a pit before shooting them. The video became one of the most direct pieces of visual evidence of extrajudicial killings by then government forces.
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said Youssef was the main perpetrator of the massacre and was taken into custody after a “well-executed” security operation.
Syria’s state news agency said he was detained in Hama province.
Footage published by the UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) appeared to show Youssef after his arrest, sitting in a police car, his nose and forehead bloodied.
The killings at Tadamon attracted widespread attention after video, filmed by the perpetrators, showing it taking place was leaked nine years later.
In the film, victims are seen being led one by one to the pit and shot. It was one of several mass killings in Tadamon by government forces around that time.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has visited the site, said there was evidence that 288 were killed in Tadamon, 41 in the incident in April 2013.
It said 11 blindfolded victims shown in the video were shot at close range and pushed into a machine-dug grave.
It has called the area “a huge crime scene”.
HRW senior researcher Hiba Zayadin said the leaked video “filmed by the perpetrators themselves who laughed as they killed their victims, shows the [former] Syrian government’s callous disregard for people’s lives.
“This massacre is just one horrific incident in a pattern of state violence and apparent war crimes.”
The government at the time, led by President Bashar al-Assad, was toppled by rebels in December 2024. Assad’s forces had fought jihadist and rebel groups in the civil war which began in March 2011 when security forces cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy protests.
More than half a million people were killed in over 13 years of conflict which followed.

2026.3.10 Ex-Syrian intelligence officer appears in UK court charged with crimes against humanity
LONDON: A former member of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence attended a British court hearing via videolink on Tuesday charged with crimes against humanity and torture relating to the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in Damascus in 2011.
Salem Michel Al-Salem, 58, who now lives in Britain, appeared virtually at the hearing at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court from his home. He was wearing a breathing apparatus mask and the court was told he suffered from degenerative motor neurone disease.
Al-Salem is charged with three counts of murder as a crime against humanity relating to deaths in April and July 2011 “as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population with knowledge of the attack”.
He is also accused of three charges of torture relating to incidents in 2011 and 2012, and one of conduct ancillary to murder as a crime against humanity. He did not speak during the hearing and there was no indication as to how he would plead.
His lawyer Sean Caulfield told the court that Al-Salem was too unwell to confirm his name.
The seven charges were brought under a British law that allows the prosecution of serious international crimes committed abroad. The Crown Prosecution Service said it was the first time it had brought charges of murder as crimes against humanity.
In 2005, Afghan warlord Faryadi Zardad was convicted by a British court of torture that had taken place in Afghanistan.
Al-Salem, who has sought indefinite leave to remain in Britain, was a colonel in the Syrian Air Force Intelligence department with oversight of the Information Branch in the district of Jobar, to the east of central Damascus, British prosecutors say.
He is accused of leading a group tasked with quelling the demonstrations, which mostly occurred during Friday afternoon prayers. Prosecutors say he gave his men orders to open fire on protesters, which led to the deaths of some individuals.
Prosecutors say he was also present at, or took part in, the torture of men at the Information Branch building.
Al-Salem was first arrested in central England in December 2021. His lawyer had sought an order to withhold his name, arguing it could pose a risk to his safety. England’s Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring rejected the application but ordered that his address not be made public.
He will next appear on Friday at London’s Old Bailey court.