Syria arrests 3 men suspected of links to Tadamon massacre in which hundreds were executed

TADAMON, Syria (AP) — Security forces in Syria said on Monday that they arrested three people involved in the execution of hundreds of civilians by government forces in Damascus in 2013, two years after the country’s 13-year civil war began.

Dozens of police and security trucks lined the streets of Tadamon, a Damascus suburb near the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, where they carried out the arrests in the same streets that once bore witness to mass executions. Masked, rifle-wielding men moved through hollowed-out buildings, remnants of a war that turned the district into a front line between government forces and opposition fighters.

In 2022, a leaked video dated April 16, 2013, appeared to contain harrowing footage of the executions. The near seven-minute clip showed members of Syria’s notorious Military Intelligence Branch 227 leading a line of about 40 blindfolded prisoners, their hands tied behind their backs, into an abandoned building in Tadamon. One by one, the gunmen pushed or kicked the prisoners into a trench filled with old tires, shooting them as they fell.

One of the three men arrested was Monzer Al-Jazairi, a resident of the Zahira neighborhood and a former operative with the military security that operated before the fall of President Bashar Assad in December.

Flanked by security men, Al-Jazairi recounted how his forces would bring detainees arrested at checkpoints in groups to the buildings, shoot and kill them and then blow up the buildings. He added that he estimates he and his colleagues killed about 500.

It was unclear whether Al-Jazairi spoke under duress or voluntarily.

Damascus Security Chief Lt. Col. Abdul Rahman Al-Dabbagh corroborated the number, citing additional confessions from those arrested.

“Many of those killed used to be collected at checkpoints and security (detention) centers, brought to Tadamon neighborhood, where they were executed,” Al-Dabbagh told the AP.

The two other arrested suspects were identified as Somer Mohammed Al-Mahmoud and Imad Mohammed Al-Mahmoud.

Years after the Syrian war’s worst massacres and mass disappearances, most alleged crimes have not been investigated and remain unpunished.

Since Assad’s ouster, Syrian security forces, under the new leadership led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, once affiliated with al-Qaida, have been tracking down and arresting remnants of the former government and military across the country.

“The operation is ongoing to apprehend all those involved in violations and massacres against Syrians,” Al-Dabbagh said.