Syria detains Assad-era general accused of bloody crackdown on protests

Major-General Mohammed Ali Durgham is accused of links to 1982 Hama massacre and 2011 protest crackdown.

A member of the former Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the overthrow of former leader Bashar al-Assad, stands guard at the Fourth Division headquarters [File: Yamam Al Shaar/Reuters]

Syrian authorities have announced the detainment of an Assad-era general accused of taking part in a massacre and overseeing a bloody crackdown on protests.

The country’s Internal Security Forces said on Monday that they had arrested former Major-General Mohammed Ali Durgham, who is accused of partaking in the Hama massacre in 1982 and ordering the shooting of unarmed protesters in 2011.

The detainment is the latest in a series of arrests as Syria’s government – led by figures from the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that deposed former President Bashar Al-Assad in 2024 after decades of brutality – attempts to bring to justice those that ran his regime.

The statement labelled Durgham “a prominent officer in the military establishment during the era of the former regime”.

He is accused of being involved in “issuing direct order” to fire on unarmed protestors in the Damascus countryside.

Human Rights Watch in 2011 quoted a Syrian army defector who said that Durgham was one of the generals who “ordered the troops to shoot at protesters when his unit was deployed to areas in and just outside of Damascus”.

Durgham was a field commander in the army’s feared Fourth Division, commanded by Assad’s brother Maher al-Assad, between 2009 and 2013.

Durgham started “as a squad commander in the Defence Brigades during the events in Hama Governorate in 1982,” the authorities said.

On February 2, 1982, amid an information blackout, then-Syrian president Hafez al-Assad launched a brutal crackdown in the central Syrian city of Hama.

The death toll ranges from 10,000 to 40,000 people killed over the nearly month-long siege of the city.

Durgham’s arrest is part of broader efforts to pursue former officials accused of crimes and abuses under the previous regime.

Since Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow in December 2024, Syria’s new authorities have arrested dozens of former security officials.

Former Major-General Jalal Kamel Saqr was detained last week for his involvement in war crimes and arbitrary detentions, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

穆罕默德·阿里·杜尔加姆少将被指控与 1982 年哈马大屠杀和 2011 年抗议镇压有关。

一名曾领导推翻前领导人巴沙尔·阿萨德的叙利亚反叛组织“沙姆解放组织”（HTS）的成员在第四师总部站岗。[图片：Yamam Al Shaar/路透社]

叙利亚当局宣布拘留了一名阿萨德时代的将军，他被指控参与了一场大屠杀并监督了对示威活动的血腥镇压。

该国内部安全部队周一表示，他们逮捕了前少将穆罕默德·阿里·杜尔加姆，他被指控参与了 1982 年的哈马大屠杀，并下令在 2011 年枪杀手无寸铁的抗议者。

此次拘留是叙利亚政府为将那些管理其政权的人绳之以法而采取的一系列逮捕行动中的最新一起。叙利亚政府由前反叛组织“沙姆解放组织”（HTS）的成员领导，该组织在经历了数十年的残酷统治后于 2024 年推翻了前总统巴沙尔·阿萨德。

声明称杜尔加姆是“前政权时期军方的一位杰出官员”。

他被指控参与“直接下令”向大马士革郊区手无寸铁的抗议者开枪。

人权观察组织在 2011 年援引一名叙利亚军队叛逃者的话说，杜尔加姆是“下令部队向抗议者开枪的将军之一，当时他的部队被部署到大马士革市内及周边地区”。

杜尔加姆在 2009 年至 2013 年间担任陆军第四师的野战指挥官，该师由阿萨德的弟弟马赫尔·阿萨德指挥，令人闻风丧胆。

当局称，杜尔加姆“于 1982 年哈马省事件期间，在国防旅担任小队指挥官”。

1982 年 2 月 2 日，在信息封锁的情况下，时任叙利亚总统哈菲兹·阿萨德在叙利亚中部城市哈马发动了一场残酷的镇压。

在长达近一个月的城市围困中，死亡人数从 1 万到 4 万人不等。

杜尔加姆被捕是追究前政权官员犯罪和滥用职权行为的更广泛努力的一部分。

自巴沙尔·阿萨德于 2024 年 12 月被推翻以来，叙利亚新当局逮捕了数十名前安全官员。

据叙利亚官方通讯社（SANA）报道，前少将贾拉勒·卡迈勒·萨克尔上周因参与战争罪行和任意拘留而被拘留。