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
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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.

 


Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals

Updated 1 min 6 sec ago
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Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals

Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals
GAZA: At Gaza’s largest hospital, doctors say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in a single incubator as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign.
Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyze hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummelled during 21 months of war.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said.
“We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator,” said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa’s director.
“Premature babies are now in a very critical condition.”
The threat comes from “neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel,” Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters.
The shortage is “depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard,” he said.
Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than 2 million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted.
Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects.
Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centers underneath them, which Hamas denies.
Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price.
There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being “on its knees,” with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties.
Just half of Gaza’s 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency.
Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of “trickle-feeding” fuel to Gaza’s hospitals.
COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza’s medical facilities and the risk to patients.

OXYGEN RISK
Abu Selmia said Al Shifa’s dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can’t be without electricity for even a few minutes.
There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia.
“Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil,” Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become “a graveyard for those inside.”
Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 liters of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 liters, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr.
Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients’ wounds, he said.
Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies.
“You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for UN children’s agency UNICEF, recently returned from Gaza.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza’s population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.

China, Russia should work together for Middle East peace, Beijing says

China, Russia should work together for Middle East peace, Beijing says
Updated 22 min 20 sec ago
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China, Russia should work together for Middle East peace, Beijing says

China, Russia should work together for Middle East peace, Beijing says
  • Wang Yi said the two countries should push for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear issue

BEIJING: China's foreign minister told his Russian counterpart on Thursday that China and Russia should strengthen strategic coordination to promote peace in the Middle East, according to a ministry statement.

Wang Yi said the two countries should push for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear issue, as he met with Russia's Sergei Lavrov in Kuala Lumpur, China's foreign ministry said.

"Peace cannot be achieved through force, and applying pressure won't solve problems," Wang said, adding that dialogue and negotiations were the way out.


UN calls for ‘immediate deescalation’ in Libyan capital

UN calls for ‘immediate deescalation’ in Libyan capital
Updated 37 min 27 sec ago
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UN calls for ‘immediate deescalation’ in Libyan capital

UN calls for ‘immediate deescalation’ in Libyan capital
  • The United Nations called for all parties to “engage in good faith” in deescalation and for the “swift implementation of security arrangements” set out during efforts to end the May violence

TRIPOLI: The UN mission in Libya called for “immediate deescalation,” citing reports of armed forces being mobilized in the capital and its surroundings that have raised fears of renewed violence.

In mid-May, there were clashes in Tripoli between forces loyal to the government and powerful armed groups wanting to dismantle it.

In a statement published late on Wednesday on X, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said there were “increased reports of continued military build-up in and around Tripoli.”

It said it “strongly urges all parties to refrain from using force, particularly in densely populated areas, and to avoid any actions or political rhetoric that could trigger escalation or lead to renewed clashes.”

It called for all parties to “engage in good faith” in deescalation and for the “swift implementation of security arrangements” set out during efforts to end the May violence.

Those clashes left six people dead, the United Nations said.

“Forces recently deployed in Tripoli must withdraw without delay,” UNSMIL said.

Libya has been gripped by conflict since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.

The country remains split between Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah’s UN-recognized government based in Tripoli and a rival administration based in the east.

In a TV interview on Monday, Dbeibah called for armed groups to vacate the areas under their control.

Among the sites held by armed factions are the Mitiga airport in the east of the capital, which is controlled by the powerful Radaa Force.

“Dialogue — not violence — remains the only viable path toward achieving lasting peace, stability in Tripoli and across Libya,” the UNSMIL statement said.


What to know as Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch new, more violent attacks on ships in the Red Sea

What to know as Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch new, more violent attacks on ships in the Red Sea
Updated 20 min 59 sec ago
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What to know as Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch new, more violent attacks on ships in the Red Sea

What to know as Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch new, more violent attacks on ships in the Red Sea
  • For the Houthis, attacking commercial ships remains far easier than targeting warships as those vessels don’t have air defense systems
  • The attacks on the two ships, the Magic Seas and the Eternity C, represent a new level of violence being employed by the Houthis

DUBAI: In just days, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have begun a new, more violent campaign of attacks targeting ships in the Red Sea, sinking two of them and killing some of their crew.

The assaults represent the latest chapter of the rebels’ campaign against shipping over the Israel-Hamas war. They also come as Yemen’s nearly decadelong war drags on in the Arab world’s poorest country, without any sign of stopping.

Here’s what to know about the Houthis, Yemen and their ongoing attacks.

Rebels involved in years of fighting

The Houthis are members of Islam’s minority Shiite Zaydi sect, which ruled Yemen for 1,000 years until 1962. They battled Yemen’s central government for years before sweeping down from their northern stronghold in Yemen and seizing the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. That launched a grinding war still technically being waged in the country today. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to try to restore Yemen’s exiled, internationally recognized government to power.

Years of bloody, inconclusive fighting against the Saudi-led coalition settled into a stalemated proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, causing widespread hunger and misery in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country. The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.

A ceasefire that technically ended in October 2022 is still largely being honored. Saudi Arabia and the rebels have done some prisoner swaps, and a Houthi delegation was invited to high-level peace talks in Riyadh in September 2023 as part of a wider détente the kingdom has reached with Iran. While they reported “positive results,” there is still no permanent peace.

Houthis supported by Tehran while raising own profile

Iran long has backed the Houthis. Tehran routinely denies arming the rebels, despite physical evidence, numerous seizures and experts tying the weapons back to Iran. That’s likely because Tehran wants to avoid sanctions for violating a United Nations arms embargo on the Houthis.

The Houthis now form the strongest group within Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance.” Others like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have been decimated by Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that sparked Israel’s war of attrition in the Gaza Strip.

Iran also is reeling after Israel launched a 12-day war against the country and the US struck Iranian nuclear sites.

The Houthis also have seen their regional profile raise as they have attacked Israel, as many in the Arab world remain incensed by the suffering Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face.

Houthis attack ships over Israel-Hamas war

The Houthis have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Between November 2023 and December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two and killing four sailors. Their campaign has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The last Houthi attack, targeting US warships escorting commercial ships, happened in early December. A ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war began in January and held until March. The US then launched a broad assault against the rebels that ended weeks later when Trump said the rebels pledged to stop attacking ships.

Since then, the Houthis have continued occasional missile attacks targeting Israel, but they hadn’t attacked ships until this past weekend. Shipping through the Red Sea, while still lower than normal, had increased in recent weeks.

New attacks raise level of violence and complexity

The attacks on the two ships, the Magic Seas and the Eternity C, represent a new level of violence being employed by the Houthis.

Experts have referred to the assaults as being complex in nature, involving armed rebels first racing out to the vessels in the Red Sea, firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. They then have used anti-ship missiles and both aerial and sea drones loaded with explosives to attack the ships.

This coordinated attack sank two vessels in just a matter of days, doubling the number of ships they have sunk. There also is a growing fear the attack on the Eternity C may have been the rebels’ deadliest at sea as crew members remain missing.

The attacks also signal that Israeli and American airstrikes have not stripped the rebels of their ability to launch attacks.

Commercial ships have few defense options

For the Houthis, attacking commercial ships remains far easier than targeting warships as those vessels don’t have air defense systems. Instead, some carry a few armed guards able to shoot at attackers or approaching drones. Downing a drone remains difficult and shooting down a missile is impossible with their weaponry.

Armed guards also typically are more trained for dealing with piracy and will spray fire hoses at approaching small boats or ring a bridge with cyclone wire to stop attackers from climbing aboard. The Houthis, however, have experience doing helicopter-borne assaults and likely could overwhelm a private security detail, which often is just a three-member team aboard a commercial vessel.

Resumed attacks have international and domestic motives

To hear it from the Houthis, the new attack campaign “represents a qualitative shift in the course of the open battle in support of Gaza.” Their SABA news agency said Israel commits “daily massacres against civilians in Gaza and relies on sea lanes to finance its aggression and maintain its siege.”

“This stance, which is not content with condemnation or statements, is also advancing with direct military action, in a clear effort to support the Palestinians on various fronts,” the rebels said.

However, the rebels stopped their attacks in late December as Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire. The Houthis formally suspended their attacks, though they said ships or companies calling on Israeli ports would remain possible targets.

The rebels also may have reconstituted their forces following the grinding American airstrikes that targeted them. They have not acknowledged their materiel losses from the attacks, though the US has said it dropped more than 2,000 munitions on more than 1,000 targets.

There likely is an international and domestic consideration, as well. Abroad, a new possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war — as well as the future of talks between the US and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear program — remain in the balance. The Houthis in the past have been a cudgel used by Tehran, though experts debate just how much influence Tehran wields in picking targets for the rebels.

At home, the Houthis have faced growing discontent over their rule as Yemen’s economy is in tatters and they have waged a campaign of detaining of UN officials and aid workers. Resuming their attacks can provide the Houthis something to show those at home to bolster their control.


Israeli army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen

Israeli army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
Updated 10 July 2025
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Israeli army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen

Israeli army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
  • The Houthis carried out a military operation using a ballistic missile

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Thursday, with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels later claiming responsibility for the attack, which followed Israeli strikes on Houthi targets.

The Houthis “carried out a qualitative military operation” using a ballistic missile, military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a video statement.

The Israeli military said earlier in a post on X that a missile launched from Yemen had been intercepted following air raid sirens that sounded before dawn in several areas of Israel.

The Houthis began targeting Israel and ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden they accuse of having links to the country after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.

In response, Israel has carried out several strikes on Yemen, including attacks on Sunday on the port city of Hodeida.

The Houthis claimed responsibility this week for the sinking of two vessels, as they resumed their campaign against global shipping in the Red Sea.

Their fresh attacks mark the end of a months-long lull and threaten a May ceasefire with the United States that ended weeks of strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

Saree said the Eternity C bulk carrier, which was first attacked on Monday, was headed for the Israeli port of Eilat and was attacked in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

Saree warned companies dealing with Israeli ports that their ships would be targeted until Israel was forced to “lift the siege” on Gaza and end the war.

The Houthis said Monday that they had boarded and sank another vessel, the Magic Seas, a day earlier, because its owner had done business with Israel and used its ports.

Houthi attacks have prompted many shipping firms to make the time-consuming detour around the southern tip of Africa to avoid the Red Sea, which normally carries about 12 percent of global trade.