Syria detains three generals amid campaign against Assad-era figures

Syrian security forces are continuing a campaign of arrests against people accused of committing crimes during the rule of the former Assad regime, detaining at least three Assad-era generals.

Syrian authorities on Monday said they had arrested a former general accused of involvement in the bloody repression of protests in 2011 that sparked the country's civil war.

In a statement, security forces said they "arrested former Major General Mohammed Ali Durgham, a prominent officer in the military establishment during the era of the former regime" of Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in 2024.

They accused him of "issuing direct orders to his units to fire on unarmed demonstrators in the Damascus countryside" after anti-Assad protests had erupted in 2011.

Durgham was a field commander in the army's feared Fourth Division, commanded by Assad's brother Maher al-Assad, between 2009 and 2013.

Human Rights Watch in 2011 quoted a Syrian army defector who said that Durgham was one of the generals who "ordered the troops to shoot at protesters when his unit was deployed to areas in and just outside of Damascus".

He has been under European Union sanctions since 2012.

In Aleppo province, the Internal Security Forces announced the arrest of former Air Force Brigadier General Hamada Ali Murad.

The security authorities said Murad was still being interrogated, with the aim of determining the nature of his activities in previous years.

According to information circulating about his career, Murad is originally from the town of Nubl – a stronghold of the former regime - in northern Aleppo province.

He graduated from the Air Force Academy, specialising as a helicopter pilot. He previously served with the 63rd Helicopter Air Brigade at Taftanaz Air Base in Idlib province before transferring to the Air Force Academy as an instructor and later to the Air Institute.

Following the Syrian uprising in 2011, he is believed to have been assigned to the notorious Air Force Intelligence branch in Aleppo as a liaison officer. There, he is accused of coordinating air operations and helping to identify areas for targeting.

The Assad regime notoriously used indiscriminate barrel bombs to attack opposition-held towns and cities, killing tens of thousands of civilians. He later headed the Air Training Institute in Aleppo.

Murad’s arrest comes as part of a broader security campaign in Aleppo province.

In Latakia province, the Internal Security Forces announced on Saturday the arrest of Major General Jalal Kamel Saqr, who previously served as commander of the 18th Infantry Brigade in the former regime’s forces.

The authorities said preliminary investigations indicated that he was involved in war crimes and arbitrary detention of civilians during the years of the Syrian uprising.

They also said he participated in military operations targeting areas in Damascus and Eastern Ghouta, as well as overseeing detention campaigns in Daraa province in the south of the country.

Over 500,000 people were killed in the Syrian conflict, which began after the Assad regime’s brutal suppression of anti-government protests in 2011 and is generally considered to have ended with the overthrow of the Assad regime in December 2024.

Most of the casualties were as a result of the regime's bombardment of civilian areas.

Agencies contributed to this report.