'Main suspect in a massacre': Syria arrests Assad-era paramilitary leader
'Main suspect in a massacre': Syria arrests Assad-era paramilitary leader Syrian authorities on Thursday said they had arrested a paramilitary leader who backed ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad during the country's civil war and was the main suspect in a massacre of nearly 250 civilians. "The intelligence services have arrested Ali Kayali, who also went by the name Mihrac Ural, the main suspect in…
Syria's authorities announced on Thursday the arrest of Ali Kayali, a paramilitary leader who supported former President Bashar al-Assad during the country's civil war. Kayali, also known as Mihrac Ural, was the primary suspect in the Banias massacre of 2013, where nearly 250 civilians lost their lives. The intelligence services apprehended him while he attempted to escape across the border, though the destination of his escape remains unspecified.
Kayali had previously fled from prison in 1982 in Turkey and later relocated to Syria, where he established a paramilitary force allied with Assad's government. The Banias massacre, carried out by government forces and their allies in May 2013, involved mass executions in the predominantly Sunni Muslim towns of Bayda and Banias in the coastal province of Tartus. Human Rights Watch documented the killings as one of the deadliest instances of mass executions in Syria's devastating conflict, resulting in at least 248 deaths.
Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar Alwais emphasized that the arrest sends a strong message that impunity for criminals will no longer be tolerated, regardless of how much time has passed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, reported a death toll of around 400 in the Banias and Bayda massacres.
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