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- Politics
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What happened to Syria's missing children: Assad regime hid them in orphanages, says report
The Assad government forcefully disappeared at least 3,700 children whose parents were disloyal to the regime. The figures have been confirmed by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, although the true numbers could be much higher It's been over six months since Syria's Bashar al-Assad-led regime was overthrown after widespread rebellion in the country. Syrians, who were once troubled by the government, are now trying to ascertain the fate of their loved ones who disappeared during Assad's rule, including thousands of children. An investigation by the New York Times reveals that the Assad government forcefully disappeared at least 3,700 children whose parents were disloyal to the regime. The figures have been confirmed by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, although the true numbers could be much higher. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Where were these children sent? Hundreds of children were forcibly separated from their families and placed in orphanages, some run by the NGO SOS Children's Villages. Many were assigned false identities, making it nearly impossible for relatives to find them. Some were later adopted. Classified documents and intelligence databases created by Air Force Intelligence, the agency tasked with running the operation, obtained by the NYT, expose the full scale of the Assad regime's secretive and brutal operation. Senior Air Force Intelligence officials passed the orders to remove children from their parents' care by asking the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour or the governor of Rural Damascus to find orphanage placements. They were also instructed to seek the approval of the mukhabarat, or secret police, before taking any action. Ministers and governors subsequently instructed orphanages to conceal the children and withhold any identifying information. The Times discovered that at least nine facilities took in these children, including six operated by SOS Children's Villages. Identities altered The publication interviewed several children whose identities were changed during their detention. Videt, the SOS spokesman, said 'it is impossible to confirm whether all names were accurate,' but maintained that SOS 'was never instructed to change or invent names for children in our care.' In Syria, children officially labelled as having 'unknown parentage' are exempt from military conscription, a problem for an army desperate for recruits during the war. Several former residents of the Lahn al-Hayat orphanage said they were assigned new identities once they reached conscription age. Many were then forced into military service, and at least one was imprisoned for attempting to desert the front lines. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The new Syrian government is now investigating the forced disappearance of children during the war by forming a committee.
Daily Mirror
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Inside 'human slaughter house' prisons with 40-degree heat and executions
Warning: Distressing content. The notoriety of Bashar Al-Assad's 'human slaughterhouse' prisons have been well-documented, where thousands died or vanished after being imprisoned under his repressive regime in Syria Thousands suffered or disappeared after being incarcerated in Bashar Al-Assad's infamous "human slaughterhouse" prisons before his oppressive regime in Syria was overthrown. The daily horror for those trapped in Assad's most notorious detention centre included execution parties, scattered corpses and brutalised guards who took pleasure in their cruelty, resulting in the death of an estimated 13,000 people. Inmates were subjected to savage conditions, crammed so tightly together that they would descend into madness due to oxygen deprivation, while being fed like beasts from pails. At the notorious Saydnaya Prison, one guard, Hussam, confessed to BBC Two's documentary Surviving Syria's Prisons: "When the prisoners heard my name, they would tremble. I beat them with all my strength. I showed them no mercy at all." Following the fall of Assad's regime in 2024, people uncovered rooms filled with documents and photographs of detainees, some burnt in a vain effort to hide the heinous acts perpetrated there. Heartbreaking footage reveals families frantically searching through the debris for clues of their lost loved ones, the Express reports. After seizing control in 2000, Assad ruled Syria with a bloodstained iron fist, his prisons a cornerstone of the terror underpinning his two-decade-long dictatorship. The Arab Spring in 2011 sparked hopes for better human rights with protests in Tunisia, but they were ruthlessly extinguished in Damascus, dragging Syria into a devastating civil conflict. Thousands were locked up, including Shadi, vanishing into secret cells where they endured horrific torture until confessions were wrung out of them, often completely fabricated. On the second occasion, Shadi and his brother were seized and dragged to the notorious Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta. At this hellish facility, the then second-in-command, Colonel Zain, chillingly revealed: "The place I worked in was very famous for its bloody practices and the number of detainees held there. We would pack 400 detainees in a room that was eight by ten metres. "You wouldn't set eyes on the floor when you entered; bodies of detainees blanketed it. The screams emanating from the interrogation room situated directly below my office were no secret. It was common knowledge how we conducted our interrogations. The temperature was around 40 degrees, because it was so crowded. We saw strange cases of disease amongst prisoners, I think, due to oxygen deficiency because of overcrowding. These psychotic episodes soon turned into physical symptoms." Inmates faced a bleak changing room where they were stripped before being consigned to solitary confinement for extended periods. Shadi, leaning against the wall, recounted the excruciating hours spent in torturous stances. "They'd bring a cable and suspend us like this. This is the 'Ghost Method'. They'd pull us up and we'd be on our toes - you'd last 30 minutes then you'd pass out." He revealed that he and his brother were shackled and subjected to brutal torture via ceiling pipes, saying, "We were taken there and hung by our handcuffs from the pipes. It was unbearable - for almost 72 hours, three days, in the same position, without food or drink." Hadi, recounting their ordeal, said, "We were tortured for hours, and stopped keeping track of time," and noted that any show of pain only intensified the punishment: "If someone cried during a beating, the beating would get worse." Amnesty International has reported that an estimated 13,000 prisoners may have been executed in the civil war's initial four years alone. Hussam, once a military policeman, admitted, "Our superiors would say, 'Torture them, don't let them sleep at night. Throw them a party... put them in a grave if you want to, bury them alive'. "When they'd call me to go and torture them, the prisoners would go back to their cells bloody and exhausted. On Wednesday mornings, we'd have an 'execution party'. Our role during executions was to place the rope on the prisoner - only an officer could push the chair." The final words of one victim continued to haunt Hussam: "One time, the chair was pushed, but after 22 minutes he didn't die. So I grabbed him and pulled him downwards, so another guard who was bigger and stronger said, 'go I will do it.' Before he died he said one thing: 'I'm going to tell God what you did'." Kamal, an army nurse, described the horrific condition of the victims: "Most of the bodies suffered acute weight loss, resembling a skeleton." Elaborated on the widespread neglect and evidence of torture, the medic said: "Most of them suffered from skin lesions and rashes due to lack of hygiene - and most of them had torture marks." He revealed the cover-up within the system: "It was forbidden to record the cause of death as torture. Even those killed from gunshots were recorded as heart and respiratory failure." Mass graves became the dark answer to the overwhelming number of corpses, with at least 130 burial sites discovered across Syria, casting a bleak outlook on identifying the countless victims discarded within them.
Daily Mirror
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
'Slaughter house' prison with bodies strewn across floor and execution parties
WARNING DISTRESSING DETAILS: Bashar Al-Assad's brutal regime saw thousands die in his 'human slaughterhouse' prisons - with some guards getting so carried away they threw execution parties Before Bashar Al-Assad's regime was toppled, thousands perished or disappeared after being sent to his notorious "human slaughterhouse" jails. Prisoners in one of Assad's infamous institutions faced gruesome realities, where execution parties and floors strewn with corpses were everyday sights. Notably, a single jail accounted for the deaths of 13,000 individuals. Incarcerated souls endured conditions so abhorrent they were often driven to madness, crammed together to the point of asphyxiation and fed as if they were less than cattle. One Saydnaya Prison guard even boasted about his fearsome reputation to a BBC Two documentary called 'Surviving Syria 's Prisons': "When the prisoners heard my name, they would tremble. I beat them with all my strength. I showed them no mercy at all." With the collapse of Assad's rule, evidence of the atrocities began to surface, including rooms littered with documents and charred pictures of detainees – efforts to obliterate proof of the horrors within those walls were clear. Amidst these chilling scenes, families were recorded desperately sifting through the debris, searching for traces of their missing relatives, reports the Mirror US. From 2000 onward, Al-Assad ran a ruthless dictatorship in Syria, marked by appalling violations of human rights. The terror spawned from his prisons served to cement his iron-fisted reign for over twenty years. The Arab Spring in 2011, inspired by calls for enhanced human rights in Tunisia, was swiftly silenced in the Syrian capital, casting the nation into a protracted civil war. Thousands were detained, including Shadi, and whisked away to clandestine sites where they endured torture until they coughed up confessions, which were frequently concocted. During his second arrest with his brother, Shadi found himself in the infamous Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta. Colonel Zain, who was second-in-command at the time, revealed: "The place I worked in was very famous for its bloody practices and the number of detainees held there. We would pack 400 detainees in a room that was eight by ten metres. "Those who entered would walk over the bodies of the detainees - you couldn't see the floor. The interrogation room was right underneath my office. Everyone heard the screams. Everyone knew how the interrogations were conducted." Shadi said: "The temperature was around 40 degrees, because it was so crowded. We saw strange cases of disease amongst prisoners, I think, due to oxygen deficiency because of overcrowding. These psychotic episodes soon turned into physical symptoms." Inmates were stripped in a changing room before some were thrown into solitary confinement cells for months or even years. Demonstrating against a wall, Shadi illustrated how he was forced to endure hours of torture. "They'd bring a cable and suspend us like this. This is the 'Ghost Method'. They'd pull us up and we'd be on our toes - you'd last 30 minutes then you'd pass out." Shadi recounted his harrowing experience of being chained up with his brother and interrogated via ceiling pipes. He revealed: "We were taken there and hung by our handcuffs from the pipes. It was unbearable - for almost 72 hours, three days, in the same position, without food or drink. "We were tortured for hours, and stopped keeping track of time," Hadi remembered. "If someone cried during a beating, the beating would get worse." Amnesty reports that as many as 13,000 inmates were executed here alone in the initial four years of the civil war. Hussam, a military policeman, said: "Our superiors would say, 'Torture them, don't let them sleep at night. Throw them a party... put them in a grave if you want to, bury them alive'. "When they'd call me to go and torture them, the prisoners would return to their cells bloody and exhausted. On Wednesday mornings, we'd have an 'execution party. Our role during executions was to place the rope on the prisoner - only an officer could push the chair. "One time, the chair was pushed, but after 22 minutes he didn't die. So I grabbed him and pulled him downwards, so another guard who was bigger and stronger said, 'go I will do it.' Before he died he said one thing: 'I'm going to tell God what you did'. "Most of the bodies suffered acute weight loss, resembling a skeleton," Kamal, an army nurse, noted. "Most of them suffered from skin lesions and rashes due to lack of hygiene - and most of them had torture marks." He revealed a harrowing fact: "It was forbidden to record the cause of death as torture. Even those killed from gunshots were recorded as heart and respiratory failure." With an overwhelming number of casualties, mass graves became a grim necessity. Investigators have since uncovered at least 130 burial sites throughout Syria, although many of those laid to rest there may never be identified.
Daily Record
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Record
Execution parties and inmates going mad with no oxygen in 'human slaughterhouse' jails
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT: Bashar Al-Assad's regime was brutal and deadly and it's estimated that 13,000 people were executed in just one of his prisons, where there were execution parties Before Bashar Al-Assad's oppressive regime met its end, thousands had died or vanished after being dispatched to his notorious "human slaughterhouse" jails. Inmates in one Syrian prison were subjected to a horrifying existence under Assad, with execution parties and floors strewn with corpses while the guards, indoctrinated and vicious, maintained a regime of terror. One facility in particular was linked to 13,000 deaths. The conditions for detainees were beyond inhumane. Packed so tightly they suffered from oxygen deprivation that led to psychosis, and receiving their meagre food portions out of buckets. Hussam, a military policeman at Saydnaya Prison, admitted to the BBC Two documentary Surviving Syria's Prisons: "When the prisoners heard my name, they would tremble. I beat them with all my strength. I showed them no mercy at all." With Assad's rule overturned, people discovered the gruesome evidence of past horrors – files and photographs of inmates were scattered on the ground, some burnt in a failed attempt to obliterate the evidence of the atrocities carried out behind those walls. The footage shows devastated families sifting through the grim debris, searching for signs of their missing relatives, reports the Mirror US. Al-Assad's reign since 2000 marked a brutal chapter for Syria, characterised by egregious human rights abuses and prisons that reinforced the atmosphere of dread, sustaining his grip on power for more than twenty years. In 2011, the demands for improved human rights that fueled the Arab Spring in Tunisia were brutally suppressed in Damascus, thrusting Syria into a devastating civil war. Thousands were apprehended, including Shadi, and whisked away to clandestine facilities where torture was employed until they confessed—confessions that were often fabricated. On his second arrest with his brother, Shadi found himself in the infamous Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta. Colonel Zain, who was second in command at the time, disclosed: "The place I worked in was very famous for its bloody practices and the number of detainees held there. We would pack 400 detainees in a room that was eight by ten metres." He chillingly detailed the conditions: "Those who entered would walk over the bodies of the detainees - you couldn't see the floor. The interrogation room was right underneath my office. Everyone heard the screams. Everyone knew how the interrogations were conducted." Shadi recounted the unbearable heat: "The temperature was around 40 degrees, because it was so crowded. We saw strange cases of disease amongst prisoners, I think, due to oxygen deficiency because of overcrowding. These psychotic episodes soon turned into physical symptoms." Within the facility was a changing area where inmates were forced to undress, while solitary confinement cells could incarcerate individuals for months or even years. Demonstrating against a wall, Shadi described a brutal tactic used by the jailers: "They'd bring a cable and suspend us like this. This is the 'Ghost Method'. They'd pull us up and we'd be on our toes - you'd last 30 minutes then you'd pass out." Shadi recounted his harrowing experience being imprisoned with his brother, stating: "We were taken there and hung by our handcuffs from the pipes. It was unbearable - for almost 72 hours, three days, in the same position, without food or drink." Hadi painfully remembered the torment they endured: "We were tortured for hours, and stopped keeping track of time," and added despondently, "If someone cried during a beating, the beating would get worse." Amnesty has reported that as many as 13,000 prisoners may have been executed at this site alone within the first four years of the civil conflict. Hussam, who had served as a military policeman, revealed chilling orders from his superiors: "Our superiors would say, 'Torture them, don't let them sleep at night. Throw them a party... put them in a grave if you want to, bury them alive'." He then divulged the grim routine he was part of: "When they'd call me to go and torture them, the prisoners would go back to their cells bloody and exhausted. On Wednesday mornings, we'd have an 'execution party. Our role during executions was to place the rope on the prisoner - only an officer could push the chair." Recalling one horrific event, Hussam said: "One time, the chair was pushed, but after 22 minutes he didn't die. So I grabbed him and pulled him downwards, so another guard who was bigger and stronger said, 'go I will do it.' Before he died he said one thing: 'I'm going to tell God what you did'." Kamal, an army nurse, described the appalling state of deceased inmates: "Most of the bodies suffered acute weight loss, resembling a skeleton," and detailed further, "Most of them suffered from skin lesions and rashes due to lack of hygiene - and most of them had torture marks." He disclosed: "It was forbidden to record the cause of death as torture. Even those killed from gunshots were recorded as heart and respiratory failure." With the overwhelming number of casualties, mass graves became the grim answer. Investigators have uncovered at least 130 burial sites throughout Syria, casting doubt on the chances of identifying the countless victims interred within them.
Khaleej Times
18-04-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Fall of Bashar Al Assad: How did he escape Syria?
As rebels closed in on Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, who ruled over Syria with an iron fist for 24 years, used a private jet to spirit away cash, valuables and confidential documents mapping the corporate web behind his wealth. Yasar Ibrahim, the president's top economic adviser, arranged the leasing of the plane to transport Assad's treasured assets, relatives, aides and presidential palace personnel to a Gulf country aboard four flights, according to an account of the operation pieced together by Reuters from more than a dozen sources. Ibrahim, who ran the economic and financial office of the presidency, was instrumental in creating a network of entities Assad used to control swathes of Syria's economy, often acting as a front for the former ruler, according to US sanctions notices, as well as experts on Syria's economy and one source inside Assad's business network. Western nations imposed sanctions on Assad following his repression of 2011 pro-democracy protests and later on Ibrahim for assisting the regime. The Embraer Legacy 600 jet made four back-to-back trips to Syria in the 48 hours before the regime's fall, according to a Reuters review of flight tracking records. The plane, which has the tail number C5-SKY, is registered in Gambia. The fourth flight departed on December 8 from the Russian-operated Hmeimim military air base, near Latakia, on Syria's Mediterranean coast, according to flight tracking records, a satellite image and a former Air Force Intelligence source with direct knowledge of the operation. Assad fled to Russia on the same day from the same base. The operation to extract Assad's assets from Syria has not been previously reported. Reuters spoke to 14 Syrian sources with knowledge of the scheme, including airport staff, former intelligence and Presidential Guard officers and a person within Assad's business network. The news agency also reviewed a WhatsApp conversation between Ibrahim's associates, flight tracking data, satellite images, and corporate and aviation ownership registers on three continents to assemble its account of how Assad's closest confidant orchestrated safe passage for the plane. The jet carried unmarked black bags of cash holding at least $500,000 as well as documents, laptops and hard drives with key intelligence about "The Group", the codename Assad and Ibrahim's associates used for the intricate network of entities spanning telecoms, banking, real estate, energy and other activities, according to the individual inside Assad's network, a former Air Force Intelligence officer and the WhatsApp conversation. Assad, whose whereabouts was kept secret from even close family members in the last frantic days of his regime, has been granted political asylum in Russia. Reuters was unable to reach him or Ibrahim for comment. The government of new president Ahmed al-Sharaa is determined to recover public funds taken abroad in the run up to Assad's fall, a senior official told Reuters, to support Syria's economy as it labours under sanctions and a currency shortage. The official confirmed to Reuters that money was smuggled out of the country before the former ruler's ouster, but did not elaborate how, adding that authorities were still determining where the money went. Reuters could not independently determine whether Assad actively directed the escape operation. Several sources with direct knowledge of the mission said it could not have happened without the ruler's blessing. 'You have not seen this plane' On December 6, as rebels led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham marched towards the capital, the 13-seater Embraer jet approached Damascus International Airport. More than a dozen staff in the camouflage uniforms of Syria's Air Force Intelligence, a main instrument of political repression under Assad, mobilised to guard the Hall of Ceremonies, the airport's VIP section, and its access route, according to six sources with knowledge of the operation. Four of these sources said they were at the scene. A handful of civilian cars with tinted windows approached the area, three of the people on site said. The cars belonged to the elite Republican Guard, tasked to protect Assad and the Presidential Palace, said two of the people on site, the former intelligence officer and a senior airport official. The involvement of the Republican Guard meant that "Bashar (al-Assad) gave the orders" relating to the operation, according to a former senior Republican Guard member. The guard answered only to its commander, Assad's cousin General Talal Makhlouf, or Assad himself, this person added. The head of airport security, Brigadier-General Ghadeer Ali, told airport staff that Air Force Intelligence personnel would handle the aircraft, according to Mohammed Qairout, head of ground operations with Syrian Air. "This plane is coming to land and we will deal with it," Qairout recalled being told by Ali. "You have not seen this plane." Ali, a senior Air Force Intelligence officer, took orders directly from the Presidential Palace, three Syrian airport officials and the former intelligence officer said. Reuters could not reach Ali for comment. Ali told Air Force Intelligence staff that Presidential Palace personnel and relatives of Assad, including teenagers, were due to board the first two flights that left Damascus on December 6, which also carried cash, according to the former intelligence officer at the scene. Reuters could not access a manifest for the four flights to confirm the plane's passengers or cargo. The second flight from Damascus also transported paintings and some small sculptures, said the same source. On December 7, the jet was back in Damascus around 4 pm and left for a third time over an hour later, this time loaded with bags of cash as well as hard drives and electronic devices containing information about Assad's corporate network, according to the intelligence officer and the source inside Assad's business network. The stored information included financial records, minutes of meetings, ownership of companies, real estate and partnerships, as well as details of cash transfers and offshore companies and accounts, this source said. Early on December 8, rebel fighters reached Damascus, prompting Assad to flee for his coastal stronghold of Latakia, in coordination with Russian forces. Damascus airport stopped operating. A satellite image taken at 9.11 am by Planet Labs captured the plane on the runway at Hmeimim. Reuters was able to confirm the Embraer jet in the image was C5-SKY based on the size and shape and flight tracking data. The jet was the only private plane flying in and out of Syria between December 6 and December 8, flight tracking data show. Aboard the flight from Hmeimim was Ahmed Khalil Khalil, a close associate of Ibrahim active inside Assad's network, according to the Air Force Intelligence officer, the source inside Assad's business empire and the WhatsApp conversation. Khalil is under Western sanctions for supporting the former regime by operating and controlling several businesses in Syria. He had reached the Russian base, carrying $500,000 in cash, according to the person inside Assad's network and the WhatsApp messages. Khalil had withdrawn the money two days earlier from an account with the Syria International Islamic Bank (SIIB), according to the same sources. The person inside Assad's circle said the account belongs to Damascus-based Al-Burj Investments. The company is 50-per-cent owned by Ibrahim, according to The Syria Report, an online platform that contains a corporate database compiled by Syria experts which cited 2018 official Syrian records. Khalil did not respond to a request for comment sent via his Facebook account. SIIB and Al-Burj did not respond to emails seeking comment. The individual inside Assad's business circle and a former official at Syria's Air Transport Authority said the Embraer jet was operating under a 'dry lease', in which the owner provides the aircraft, but no crew, pilot, maintenance, ground operations or insurance. Reuters couldn't determine who operated the flights. 'The Lebanese plane' Ibrahim leased the jet from Lebanese businessman Mohamad Wehbe, according to a member of Syria's business elite and the source inside Assad's network. In the WhatsApp conversation the jet was described by one of Ibrahim's associates as "the Lebanese plane". In April 2024, Mohamad Wehbe posted pictures of C5-SKY on LinkedIn with the caption, "welcome". In January, the businessman wrote in a separate LinkedIn post that the aircraft was for sale. The plane was registered in Gambia to a local company, Flying Airline Company, from April 2024. Flight tracking records show that, in the months preceding Assad's fall, the aircraft had flown to Assad's ally Russia, currently under Western aviation sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. Reuters was unable to reach the registered contact for Flying Airline Company in Gambia, Sheikh Tijan Jallow. Flying Airline Co. is 30-per-cent owned by another Lebanese national, Oussama Wehbe, and 70-per-cent owned by Iraqi national Safa Ahmed Saleh, as per Gambian records. Social media show Mohamad Wehbe has a son named Oussama who also works in the aviation industry. Reuters could not confirm if he is the same man on the Gambian registry. Contacted by Reuters, Mohamad Wehbe denied any involvement with the C5-SKY flights in and out of Syria and told Reuters he does not own the plane but merely rents it "sometimes" from a broker, whose name he declined to provide. He did not respond to questions about whether his son was involved.
