Syria arrests 3 suspects for involvement in 'Tadamon Massacre'

Syrian authorities have arrested three men suspected of involvement in the execution of hundreds of civilians by government forces in Damascus in 2013, two years into the country’s 13-year civil war, reports AP.

Security forces, accompanied by dozens of police and security trucks, carried out the arrests in Tadamon, a Damascus suburb near the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. The operation took place in the same streets that once witnessed mass executions, now lined with hollowed-out buildings—remnants of a war that turned the district into a battleground between government forces and opposition fighters.

A leaked video from 2022, dated April 16, 2013, allegedly depicted chilling footage of the executions. The nearly seven-minute clip showed members of Syria’s notorious Military Intelligence Branch 227 leading approximately 40 blindfolded prisoners, hands tied behind their backs, into an abandoned building in Tadamon. The gunmen then pushed or kicked each prisoner into a trench filled with old tyres, shooting them as they fell.

Among those arrested was Monzer Al-Jazairi, a former operative with military security and a resident of the Zahira neighbourhood. Speaking to The Associated Press, Al-Jazairi described how detainees were brought from checkpoints, executed under buildings, and then buried beneath rubble when the structures were detonated. It was unclear whether his statements were made voluntarily or under duress.

“Each batch consisted of around 25 people,” he said, adding that there was a gap of approximately a week between executions. He estimated that he and his colleagues killed about 500 people.

Lt. Col. Abdul Rahman Al-Dabbagh, Damascus Security Chief, confirmed this figure, citing confessions from those arrested.