LONDON: Syrian authorities in Latakia have arrested two senior officers said to have been part of the country’s military forces under the regime of the former president, Bashar Assad, and responsible for war crimes during the civil war.
Internal security forces arrested Maj. Gen. Haitham Suleiman Barakat, former commander of the 11th Infantry Division, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported. He faces charges of detaining civilians, extortion, and fabricating terrorism charges against activists, as well as involvement in the killing and disappearance of detainees.
Brig. Gen. Marwan Suleiman Barakat was also arrested and faces charges related to his role in military operations with the 15th Infantry Brigade in Daraa, southern Syria, where he served as head of artillery between 2011 and 2019.
The Syrian security agencies have arrested dozens of officials and senior officers from the Assad regime era accused of human rights violations against the Syrian people. Some are already on trial or have received lengthy sentences.
Bashar Assad and his brother, Maher, who commanded the army’s elite Fourth Division, were this month sentenced in their absence to death by a court in Damascus. They both fled to Moscow in December 2024 when their regime fell in the face of an opposition offensive.
