Officers arrested over suspected involvement in Syrian massacre

Three officers from the Assad regime who were allegedly involved in the April 2013 Tadamon massacre have been arrested by Syrian security forces, The New Arab reported on February 17th.

The 2013 massacre was carried out in the southern Damascus suburb of Tadamon. In April of that year, an estimated 288 people were murdered in a notorious mass execution widely known as “Tadamon massacre” by members of the National Defense Forces (NDF). The massacre was only discovered by Syrian researchers in 2022.

The three officers arrested on February 17th were identified as Somar Mohammed Al-Mahmoud, Imad Mohammed Al-Mahmoud and  Mundhir Al-Jaza’iri. There has been no further confirmation.

A statement from the head of General Security in Damascus, Major Abdul Rahman Al-Dabbagh, said: “[S]ecurity forces managed to capture one of the leaders of the criminals responsible for the Tadamon massacre which happened 12 years ago.”

“Preliminary interrogations of the suspect revealed the identity of many others involved in the massacre, and two more of them were arrested,” Al-Dabbagh said, adding that the pursuit of finding mass graves in the area had started.

Syria’s new authorities, currently headed by interim Ahmed al-Sharaa, were compelled to act on the atrocity after inaction over the cold-blooded killings caused widespread public anger.

This month protests took place in Tadamon after an NDF leader called Fadi Saqr, who is broadly suspected of being behind the massacre, went to the area together with military commanders from the authorities.

The New Arab