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Who was in ousted Syrian President Assad’s inner circle and where are they now?

Bashar Assad, right, and his brother Maher Assad, center, stand during the funeral of their father, former President Hafez Assad, in Damascus, Syria, June 13, 2000. (AP)
Bashar Assad, right, and his brother Maher Assad, center, stand during the funeral of their father, former President Hafez Assad, in Damascus, Syria, June 13, 2000. (AP)
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Updated 14 December 2024

Who was in ousted Syrian President Assad’s inner circle and where are they now?

Who was in ousted Syrian President Assad’s inner circle and where are they now?
  • Some 8,000 Syrian citizens have entered Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing in recent days, according to two Lebanese security officials & a judicial official, and about 5,000 have left the neighboring country through Beirut’s international airport

BEIRUT: After insurgents toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad this month, many senior officials and members of his dreaded intelligence and security services appear to have melted away. Activists say some of them have managed to flee the country while others went to hide in their hometowns.
For more than five decades, the Assad family has ruled Syria with an iron grip, locking up those who dared question their power in the country’s notorious prisons, where rights groups say inmates were regularly tortured or killed.
The leader of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham insurgent group — which led anti-government fighters who forced Assad from power — has vowed to bring those who carried out such abuses to justice.
“We will go after them in our country,” said HTS leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who was previously known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani. He added that the group will also ask foreign countries to hand over any suspects.
But finding those responsible for abuses could prove difficult.
Some 8,000 Syrian citizens have entered Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing in recent days, according to two Lebanese security officials and a judicial official, and about 5,000 have left the neighboring country through Beirut’s international airport. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Most of those are presumed to be regular people, and Lebanon’s Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said earlier this week that no Syrian official entered Lebanon through a legal border crossing.
In an apparent effort to prevent members of Assad’s government from escaping, the security officials said a Lebanese officer who was in charge of Masnaa was ordered to go on vacation because of his links to Assad’s brother.
But Rami Abdurrhaman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says several senior officers have nonetheless made it to neighboring Lebanon using travel documents with fake names.
Here’s a look at Assad and some of the officials in his inner circle.
Bashar Assad
The Western-educated ophthalmologist initially raised hopes that he would be unlike his strongman father, Hafez, when he took power in 2000, including freeing political prisoners and allowing for a more open discourse.
But when protests of his rule erupted in March 2011, Assad turned to brutal tactics to crush dissent. As the uprising became an outright civil war, he unleashed his military to blast opposition-held cities, with support from allies Iran and Russia.
He has fled to Moscow, according to Russian state media.
Maher Assad
The younger brother of the ousted president was the commander of the 4th Armored Division, which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centers. He is under US and European sanctions. He disappeared over the weekend, and Abdurrhaman said he made it to Russia.
Last year, French authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Maher Assad, along with his brother and two army generals, for alleged complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, including in a 2013 chemical attack on rebel-held Damascus suburbs.
Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk
Mamlouk was a security adviser to Assad and former head of the intelligence services. He is wanted in Lebanon for two explosions in the northern city of Tripoli in 2012 that killed and wounded dozens.
Mamlouk is also wanted in France after a court convicted him and others in absentia of complicity in war crimes and sentenced them to life in prison. The trial focused on the officials’ role in the 2013 arrest in Damascus of a Franco-Syrian man and his son and their subsequent torture and killing.
Abdurrahman said Mamlouk fled to Lebanon, and it is not clear if he is still in the country under the protection of Hezbollah.
Brig. Gen. Suheil Al-Hassan
Al-Hassan was the commander of the 25th Special Missions Forces Division and later became the head of the Syrian Special Forces, which were key to many of the government’s battlefield victories in the long-running civil war, including in Aleppo and the eastern suburbs of Damascus that long held off Assad’s troops.
Al-Hassan is known to have close ties to Russia and was praised by Russian President Vladimir Putin during one of his visits to Syria. Al-Hassan’s whereabouts are not known.
Maj. Gen. Hussam Luka
Luka, head of the General Security Directorate intelligence service, is not well known among the wider public but has played a major role in the crackdown against the opposition, mainly in the central city of Homs that was dubbed the “capital of the Syrian revolt.”
Luka has been sanctioned by the US and Britain for his role in the crackdown. It’s not clear where he is.
Maj. Gen. Qahtan Khalil
Khalil, whose whereabouts are also unknown, was head of the Air Force Intelligence service and is widely known as the “Butcher of Daraya” for allegedly leading a 2012 attack on a Damascus suburb of the same name that killed hundreds of people.
Other officials
— Retired Maj. Gen. Jamil Hassan, former head of the Air Force Intelligence service, is also suspected of bearing responsibility for the attack in Daraya. Hassan was among those convicted in France this year along with Mamlouk.
— Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Ali Abbas and Maj. Gen. Bassam Merhej Al-Hassan, head of Bashar Assad’s office and the man in charge of his security, are accused of human rights violations.


Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region

Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region
Updated 41 min 30 sec ago

Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region

Israel’s Netanyahu says ‘fight not over yet’ in Gaza, wider region

JERUSALEM: Israel will achieve all goals of the Gaza war it had set out to accomplish, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Speaking at a state ceremony for fallen soldiers during the two-year conflict with militant group Hamas, Netanyahu also said Israel’s enemies learned that anyone who lifts a hand against it will pay a heavy price. 


Israel hostage forum urges govt to delay next stages of truce if Hamas fails to return bodies

Israel hostage forum urges govt to delay next stages of truce if Hamas fails to return bodies
Updated 16 October 2025

Israel hostage forum urges govt to delay next stages of truce if Hamas fails to return bodies

Israel hostage forum urges govt to delay next stages of truce if Hamas fails to return bodies
  • Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened late on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas did not honor the terms of the US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza

Jerusalem: An Israeli group campaigning for the return of all hostages held in Gaza on Thursday demanded that the government delay implementing the next stages of the truce if Hamas fails to return the remaining captives’ bodies.
In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli government to “immediately halt the implementation of any further stages of the agreement as long as Hamas continues to blatantly violate its obligations regarding the return of all hostages and the remains of the victims.”
According to the framework, outlined by US President Donald Trump, the next phases of the truce include offering amnesty to Hamas leaders who decommission their weapons and establishing the governance of post-war Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened late on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas did not honor the terms of the US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza.
It came after Hamas said it had returned all the bodies it could access, and that it would need special recovery equipment to reach the rest of the bodies promised under the agreement.
“As long as Hamas breaches the agreements and continues to hold 19 hostages, there can be no unilateral progress on Israel’s part,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
“Any political or military action that does not ensure their immediate return abandons the citizens of Israel,” it added.
Since Monday, under a ceasefire agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump, the Palestinian Islamist group has handed back 20 surviving hostages to Israel in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
It has also returned the remains of nine of 28 known deceased hostages — along with another body, which Israel said was not that of a former hostage.


Bomb explodes on Syrian Defense Ministry bus, killing and wounding soldiers

Bomb explodes on Syrian Defense Ministry bus, killing and wounding soldiers
Updated 53 min 34 sec ago

Bomb explodes on Syrian Defense Ministry bus, killing and wounding soldiers

Bomb explodes on Syrian Defense Ministry bus, killing and wounding soldiers
  • No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area is known to be home to sleeper cells of Daesh

DAMASCUS, Syria: A bomb exploded Thursday on a Syrian Defense Ministry bus in the country’s east, killing and wounding several soldiers, state TV reported.
State-run Al-Ikhbariah TV said the explosion occurred on the road linking the eastern cities of Deir Ezzor and Mayadeen. The report did not give details, only saying that a number of soldiers were killed or injured.
The report said the soldiers’s job was guarding an oil facility in the oil-rich region that borders Iraq.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area is known to be home to sleeper cells of Daesh that was defeated in Syria in 2019.
Daesh, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who was once the head of Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and fought battles against Daesh.


Gaza father hopes reopening of medical corridor can save his injured son

Gaza father hopes reopening of medical corridor can save his injured son
Updated 16 October 2025

Gaza father hopes reopening of medical corridor can save his injured son

Gaza father hopes reopening of medical corridor can save his injured son
  • The Rafah crossing remains closed with indications that it could be opened next week
  • The father of 18-year-old Hassan who says his son was shot in the head over two months ago in Gaza while out seeking food hopes that the reopening of the Rafah border point will save him

KHAN YOUNIS: The father of 18-year-old Hassan who says his son was shot in the head over two months ago in Gaza while out seeking food hopes that the reopening of the Rafah border point will save him.
“The Rafah crossing is our lifeline, for patients and for the Gaza Strip,” Ibrahim Qlob told Reuters in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis where Hassan lies motionless in bed, his eyes covered with bandages.
“I’m waiting. One day passing for me feels like a year.”
The injury caused a brain haemorrhage, necessitating the removal of part of his skull. A later infection caused him to lose sight in his right eye, his father said.
Now that a fragile ceasefire is taking hold between Israel and Hamas after two years of war, Hassan is just one of 15,600 Gazan patients waiting evacuation, including 3,800 children, according to the World Health Organization.
Many like him suffer from injuries sustained during the conflict. Others have chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease which the decimated health system cannot cope with.
Israeli officials have said the Rafah crossing previously used for patients to exit via Egypt would reopen for transfers.
Two sources told Reuters people could start crossing on Thursday. COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza, said on Wednesday the date for reopening for people will be announced later.
NOWHERE TO GO
During the conflict more than 7,000 patients have been evacuated from Gaza, with Egypt taking over half of them.
The rate of transfers slowed, however, when Rafah shut in May 2024 and Israel seized control. Since a previous ceasefire collapsed in March, fewer than four patients have exited daily, meaning it would take over 10 years to finish the list, WHO data shows.
“What we need is more countries to accept patients from Gaza, and we need the restoration of all the medical evacuation routes,” the WHO’s Tarik Jasarevic told reporters this week.
Mohammed Abu Nasser, 32, who survived a strike on his home in Zeitoun, Gaza City with severe injuries to both legs, said he has been on the waiting list over a year.
“My condition is getting worse every day,” he said from Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
DYING CHILDREN
Hundreds have already died waiting, medical groups and Palestinian health authorities say. The WHO, which took over management of the process last year, said 740 people including 137 children on the list have died since July 2024.
One of them was a girl called Jana Ayad who died from severe acute malnutrition in September, the WHO told Reuters, saying no country accepted her.
Médecins Sans Frontières project coordinator Hani Isleem said that 19 of its patients on the transfer list had died during the war, including 12 children.
“Seeing those patients’ files, being in direct touch with these children, and then you know that you lost them because of all these challenges and difficulties, that is really painful,” he said.
Israeli rejections have sometimes prevented transfers, Isleem added. COGAT did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said that approvals are subject to security checks.
“The mortality rate is tragically rising, as would be expected given the decimation of health systems and infrastructure on the ground,” said Kate Takes, a solicitor with Children Not Numbers, a UK-based charity working in Gaza and overseeing cases of children needing evacuation.
For Hassan, there are worrying signs. His malnutrition is worsening and he now weighs just 40 kilograms (88 lbs), or nearly half his former body weight, his father said.
“If things stay like this, it will be too late for him.”


Israel confirms identities of returned remains for two deceased hostages

Israel confirms identities of returned remains for two deceased hostages
Updated 16 October 2025

Israel confirms identities of returned remains for two deceased hostages

Israel confirms identities of returned remains for two deceased hostages
  • Defense Minister Israel Katz extended his condolences to the families “on behalf of the entire defense establishment” in a post on X

Jerusalem: The Israeli army announced on Thursday that it had identified the remains of hostages, Inbar Hayman and Mohammad Al-Atrash, whose bodies had been returned to Israel the previous evening by Hamas.
“Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine... (Israeli military) representatives informed the families of Inbar Hayman and Sergeant Major Mohammad Al-Atrash that their bodies had been returned for burial,” an army statement said.
Inbar Hayman, a graffiti artist from Haifa known by the pseudonym “Pink,” was 27 when she was killed at the Nova music festival. Her remains were taken to Gaza. The remains of Sergeant Major Mohammad Al-Atrash, a 39-year-old soldier of Bedouin origin who was killed in combat on October 7, were also taken to the Palestinian territory.
Defense Minister Israel Katz extended his condolences to the families “on behalf of the entire defense establishment” in a post on X.


“Inbar was abducted from the Nova festival and assassinated by Hamas murderers on October 7, and Mohammad fell in battle after defending the division’s soldiers with supreme heroism,” he added.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government “shares in the deep sorrow” of the two families and all the families of the fallen hostages.
“The Hamas terrorist organization is required to uphold its commitments to the mediators and return (the hostages) as part of the implementation of the agreement. We will not compromise on this,” the statement added.
Katz threatened late on Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas did not honor the terms of a US-backed ceasefire that halted the war in Gaza.
It came after Hamas said it had returned all the bodies it could access, and that it would need special recovery equipment to reach the rest of the bodies promised under the agreement.