Syria announces the arrest of Bashar al-Assad's cousin and a number of officers and officials of his regime

The Syrian authorities arrested Yahya al-Assad, the cousin of former President Bashar al-Assad, in addition to a number of officers and officials of his regime. The spokesman for the Syrian Ministry of Interior, Nour al-Din al-Baba, said on Monday that “these are former officers and officials of the former regime,” and that he was arrested during security operations of the Internal Security Command in the city of Homs in the center of the country, according to the official Syrian Al-Ikhbariya channel.

The Pope revealed the arrest of the former commander of the 24th Division and the Director of the Air Defense Department, Major General Muhammad Deeb Afuf, the head of the Investigation Department in the Air Intelligence Department, Muhammad Turki Manoun, and the head of the Investigation Branch in the same administration, Salem Nawras al-Daghestani. In addition to the former officer with the rank of brigadier general in the Political Security Division, Riyad Hamdo Shehadeh, the head of the Terrorism Court, Ghazi Badr Abdel Saleh, an officer with the rank of brigadier general in the Tishreen Military Hospital, Saadallah Girgis Masoud, the former officer with the rank of brigadier general Murhaf Mohsen Ali Al-Salama, and the former brigadier general in the Republican Guard Ahmed Faisal Al-Mustafa, in addition to the military doctor Shuaib Fouad Al-Marqadi.

The list included "helicopter pilot Rajeh Khader Wannous, helicopter pilot Ibrahim Yassin Salama, and military pilot Munther Ali Muhammad Al-Ali," in addition to Kamel Muhammad Sharif, whom the "Pope" said was involved in the events of the Tadamon neighborhood in the Yarmouk camp south of Damascus in 2013, which witnessed civilians being shot at at the beginning of the civil war. Alaa Saleh al-Assad, the former prison guard in the military prison in Homs.

According to statistics from the Syrian Ministry of Interior issued on June 15, the authorities arrested 3,548 military ranks in the Assad regime, and some of them were charged with suppressing demonstrations and taking over opposition files.