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Asharq Al-Awsat
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Syrian Security Forces Intensify Operations against Remnants of Ousted Regime
Syrian security forces have intensified their operations against remnants of the ousted regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Reports said they arrested Abdul Karim al-Muhaimid, who was responsible for clan attacks in the eastern Deir Ezzor region. They also arrested his son Ahmed and another suspect, Mohsen al-Ali. On Thursday, the forces arrested the head of an Iran-affiliated faction that fought alongside Assad's troops. Moayad Abdul Samad al-Douaihy founded and led a faction known as the Sayyida Zeinab Brigade, affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The forces had previously arrested Yasser Matroud, a media official working for the National Defense Militias that is loyal to the regime. All of these arrests were made in Deir Ezzor. In the Damascus countryside, the security forces arrested several remnants of the regime, including Bashar Mahfoud, the official in charge of recruiting members of the 25th Division, led by Suheil al-Hassan and Khaled Othman. The security forces also continued to discover weapons and drugs caches in various regions. Sources close to the general security agency in Damascus told Asharq Al-Awsat that the security challenges are the greatest threat facing the new government. Acts of revenge and violations continue to be reported across the country. They are threatening civil peace because these crimes are being promoted on social media. Moreover, hundreds of members of the former regime are still armed and at large. Furthermore, dozens of drug smugglers remain, as well as several criminals who were released from prisons the night the regime was toppled and its jails were opened to free people who had been disappeared. The criminals and remnants of the regime are sowing chaos after their sources of income came to a stop with the collapse of the regime. Some have started to group up and are carrying out abductions, robberies and promoting drugs. Most dangerous of all is that some of these groups are following a foreign agenda, warned the sources. List of crimes Sources in Deir Ezzor said al-Muhaimid was responsible for stoking clashes between clans and the Syrian Democratic Forces at Iran's behest. Al-Douaihy's Sayyida Zeinab Brigade was disbanded in 2015 on suspicion of corruption. Al-Douaihy converted to Shiism during the war, was affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and suspected to committing several crimes. Mahfoud is accused of war crimes and of forming abduction and robbery gangs after the collapse of the regime. In the Damascus countryside, security forces arrested Mowafaq Hammoud, who is accused of taking a photo as he stands over the corpses of victims of the Assad regime. In Aleppo, security forces arrested a drug smuggler, seizing a cache of some 3 million Captagon pills.
Asharq Al-Awsat
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Head of Pro-Iran Armed Faction Arrested in Syria, Says Monitor
Security forces in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor have arrested the head of an Iran-affiliated faction that fought alongside ousted President Bashar al-Assad's forces, a war monitor said Friday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces detained Moayad Abdul Samad al-Douaihy in Deir Ezzor on Thursday. The Britain-based Observatory said Douaihy founded and led a faction known as the Sayyida Zeinab Brigade, affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards. That faction was active in the city of Al-Mayadeen, fighting alongside Assad's forces, said the Observatory which has a network of sources in Syria. It added that Douaihy received Iranian citizenship after converting to the Shiite branch of Islam. Douaihy was "involved in a long list of crimes including financial blackmail, drug smuggling, theft of civilians' properties and selling displaced people's land to naturalized Iranian and Afghan mercenaries", the Observatory said. Security forces also arrested Major General Abdul Karim al-Muhaimid, the former political security chief in Deir Ezzor province under Assad, the monitor said. Iran had mobilized about 20,000 fighters, mostly Syrians, in different factions to fight alongside Assad's forces. Before Assad was toppled, much of Deir Ezzor province near the border with Iraq was a key stronghold of Iran-backed forces. Some handed in their weapons after Assad's ouster in December, but others remain in hiding, according to the Observatory. Since seizing power, Syria's new authorities have regularly announced the arrest of Assad-era security officials.
