Syrian authorities have arrested a former intelligence officer allegedly linked to a video showing the fatal shooting of dozens during the country's conflict, officials said Friday.
Arrest in Hama Province
Amjad Yousef was arrested in the central province of Hama, where he had been hiding, the Interior Ministry announced. The ministry released a photo of him wearing a striped prison uniform. Yousef is a former officer of Syria's Military Intelligence Branch 227, a unit notorious for its role in the civil war.
Background of the Conflict
Since insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in December 2024, dozens of members of his security agencies, blamed for atrocities during the conflict, have been arrested. Assad fled to Russia. The conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 before escalating into a civil war, has left half a million people dead and over 1 million wounded.
The Tadamon Massacre Video
Yousef was one of several security agents who appeared in a video leaked in 2022, in which dozens of blindfolded, bound men were shot and thrown into a trench. The 6-minute-43-second clip shows members of Branch 227 with a line of around 40 prisoners in an abandoned building in Tadamon, a suburb of Damascus near the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. During much of the war, the district was a frontline between government forces and opposition fighters.
The prisoners were blindfolded, with their arms tied behind their backs. One after another, the gunmen stood them at the edge of a trench filled with old tires, then pushed or kicked the men in, shooting them as they fell. In the video, the intelligence agents told some prisoners they were going to pass through a sniper's alley and should run. The men tumbled onto the bodies of those before them. As bodies piled up, some still moved, and the gunmen shot into the pile. They later set the bodies on fire, presumably to erase evidence of the massacre.
Previous Arrests and International Action
Last year, Syrian security forces arrested three people involved in the same killings. The Interior Ministry said in its statement Friday that authorities will pursue all those involved in the Tadamon shooting to bring them to justice. In March 2023, the U.S. State Department banned Yousef, his wife, and immediate family members from entering the United States.
