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Gaddafi’s Daughter-in-Law Claims Damascus Incident was an Attempted Kidnap

General view shows Damascus, Syria. Reuters file photo
General view shows Damascus, Syria. Reuters file photo
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Gaddafi’s Daughter-in-Law Claims Damascus Incident was an Attempted Kidnap

General view shows Damascus, Syria. Reuters file photo
General view shows Damascus, Syria. Reuters file photo

The daughter-in-law of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has expressed her desire to leave Syria, where she is granted political asylum.

Aline Skaf is claiming that security forces attempting to arrest her in Damascus last week was part of a larger plot to kidnap her. She expressed fears of meeting the same fate as her husband, Hannibal Gaddafi, who is currently detained in Lebanon.

On January 24, security forces scrambled in the Chiekh Saad neighborhood in the Syrian capital after Skaf having rammed her car into police officers and pedestrians in a road rage attack, local witnesses reported.

Skaf, however, was spirited away by an influential Syrian official who saved her from being arrested.

The former model’s defense attorneys released a message directed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, telling their client’s side of the story and stating that she was dealt a great deal of injustice.

Circulated on social media platforms and by media outlets in Lebanon, the letter voiced Skaf’s concerns that she has overstayed her welcome in Syria.

“We thank you for hosting us for five years, and for granting us safety, but I think that our visit was prolonged and guests must not outstay their welcome,” it said.

Recounting the events of the incident, the letter noted that Skaf was heading to shop in the Mezzeh area with her friend and 15-year-old son.

While Skaf was parked by the side of the road waiting to collect her purchases from a nearby store, a policeman showed up and pulled her over requesting documents.

“She complied with the officer’s request and told him that she would not park for too long,” the letter confirmed, adding that the policeman had blocked Skaf’s way with his motorbike and refused to allow her to leave.

The officer also denied Skaf’s request to have her escorting bodyguards sort out the situation, despite them producing needed identification.

According to Skaf, the policeman used inappropriate language and proceeded to sit on her vehicle’s hood.

Maintaining that there was another officer filming the quarrel, the letter said that the speed at which Syrian opposition media outlets reported the incident confirms that it was a set up aimed at undermining Syrian leadership.

The letter stressed that danger looms over members of Hannibal Gaddafi’s family.

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Syria Rescuers, Activist Say Site outside Damascus Believed to Be Mass Grave

This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Syria Rescuers, Activist Say Site outside Damascus Believed to Be Mass Grave

This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)

A key Syrian rescue group and an activist told AFP on Wednesday a burial site outside Damascus was likely a mass grave for detainees held under former president Bashar al-Assad and fighters killed in the civil war.

In a vast walled area located near the Baghdad Bridge, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the capital, AFP journalists visiting the site saw a long row of graves more than one meter deep, mostly covered with cement slabs.

Several of the slabs had been moved and inside, white bags could be seen stacked over each other with names and numbers written on them. One of the bags contained a human skull and bones.

"We think this is a mass grave -- we found an open grave with seven bags filled with bones," said Abdel Rahman Mawas from the White Helmets rescue group, which visited the site several days earlier.

He told AFP by telephone that the bags, six of which bore names, were "taken to a secure location", adding that "necessary procedures were begun for DNA testing".

He said if additional graves had been exposed it meant other people may have been searching the site, warning people to "stay away from graves and let the relevant authorities handle them".

The site, near the Adra industrial area northeast of the capital, is less than 20 kilometers from the Saydnaya prison.

Diab Serriya, from the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison, said the site was first identified in 2019 through "testimony of an intelligence personnel member who had deserted".

Satellite imagery suggests the site was in use from 2014, he said.

"Probably this grave contains detainees but also former regime or opposition fighters killed in battle," he told AFP by telephone.

The notorious Saydnaya complex, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomized the atrocities committed against Assad's opponents.

Serriya said "the bags of bones were probably brought from other graves", adding that "the road to discovering who is buried here will be long".

The doors of Syria's prisons were flung open after an opposition alliance ousted Assad this month, more than 13 years after his brutal repression of anti-government protests triggered a war that would kill more than 500,000 people.

The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of the conflict.

Mohammed Ali from the Adra municipal council denied residents were aware of the site, which is located near a Syrian army facility.

"It was forbidden to approach it or take photos as it was a military zone," he told AFP.