DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities on Thursday said they arrested a militia leader whose armed forces backed ousted leader Bashar Assad during the country’s civil war and carried out several civilian massacres.
Ali Kayali, also known as Mihrac Ural, is accused of playing a key role in the 2013 Baniyas massacre, in which hundreds of civilians, including women and children, were killed by government forces and allied militias.
He was detained by intelligence forces while attempting to flee across the border, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported. It did not specify where the arrest took place or which country he was trying to enter.
Kayali is accused of leading an armed militia that fought alongside forces loyal to Assad and took part in massacres across the country, including in the coastal city of Baniyas and the nearby village of Al-Bayda.
The killings took place during the early years of the country’s protests on May 2 and 3, 2013, when Syrian government forces and allied militias stormed Al-Bayda and the Ras Al-Nabaa neighborhood of Baniyas in Tartus province, carrying out mass killings of civilians.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented the deaths of 264 civilians, including 36 children and 28 women, in Al-Bayda, and 195 others, including 56 children and 43 women, in Ras Al-Nabaa.
Human Rights Watch separately documented at least 248 deaths in the two areas, warning that the actual toll was likely higher.
In a September 2013 report based on witness accounts and video evidence, the rights group found that most of the victims were executed after fighting had ended and opposition fighters had withdrawn.
Survivors described bodies lying in streets and homes, with reports of civilians being shot, stabbed and burned. The attacks also forced many residents to flee their homes.
Kayali’s militia has also been accused of carrying out attacks in the countryside of Latakia, Aleppo and Idlib, leaving hundreds dead or wounded, according to SANA.
Born in Turkiye’s southern Hatay province, Kayali fled to Syria in 1982 and developed close ties with the Assad regime.
He is also suspected of involvement in the 2013 twin bombings in Reyhanli, near the Syrian border, which killed more than 50 people.
His arrest comes less than two weeks after Syrian security forces detained his deputy, Jamal Tarabulsi, on Oct. 4, over alleged involvement in attacks against civilians.
Since Assad’s overthrow in December 2024, Syria’s new authorities have pursued former regime officials and militia commanders accused of atrocities during the country’s civil war.
In May last year, President Ahmad Al-Sharaa established a national transitional justice commission tasked with investigating abuses committed under the former regime, holding perpetrators accountable and providing reparations to victims.