Sudan Pursues Bashir’s Intelligence Chief through Interpol

Former head of the dissolved National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Salah Gosh
Former head of the dissolved National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Salah Gosh
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Sudan Pursues Bashir’s Intelligence Chief through Interpol

Former head of the dissolved National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Salah Gosh
Former head of the dissolved National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Salah Gosh

Sudan has resorted to Interpol to pursue former head of intelligence in ousted president Omar al-Bashir’s regime.

Former head of the dissolved National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Salah Gosh is accused of plotting terrorist attacks aimed at undermining the constitutional system in the country.

Investigations have implicated him in forming a terrorist cell that was arrested ahead of the attacks that were planned for May 2019.

A trial will kick off in Khartoum on Sunday for members of the cell. They have been identified as former members of the so-called People’s Security Service (PSS) and security officials from Bashir’s dissolved ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

The prosecution had announced that 24 suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the plot and for seeking to violently oppose the authorities.

Interpol had in February agreed to Sudan’s request to apprehend Gosh, who is on the run in a neighboring country.

Gosh is viewed as the founder of Bashir’s notorious security agency that has been complicit in the murder of peaceful protesters in rallies that led to the ouster of the longtime president in April 2019.

Sources from the general prosecution told Asharq Al-Awsat that investigations have shown that Gosh was the main plotter of the terrorist attacks. He was involved in financing the cell and providing it with logistic support.

Weapons, explosives and modern communication equipment were seized from the cell.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said the suspects confessed that Gosh would have assumed a “major” position in the country had the operation been a success and the new transitional authority ousted.



Syrian Authorities Announce Closure of Notorious Desert Camp

 A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
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Syrian Authorities Announce Closure of Notorious Desert Camp

 A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
A boy carries bricks as he helps to restore a home in al-Qaryatayn, eastern part of Syria's Homs province, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)

A notorious desert refugee camp in Syria has closed after the last remaining families returned to their areas of origin, Syrian authorities said on Saturday.

The Rukban camp in Syria's desert was established in 2014, at the height of Syria's civil war, in a de-confliction zone controlled by the US-led coalition fighting the ISIS group, near the borders with Jordan and Iraq.

Desperate people fleeing ISIS extremists and former government bombardment sought refuge there, hoping to cross into Jordan.

Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government rarely allowed aid to enter the camp and neighboring countries closed their borders to the area, isolating Rukban for years.

After an opposition offensive toppled Assad in December, families started leaving the camp to return home.

The Syrian Emergency Task Force, a US-based organization, said on Friday that the camp was "officially closed and empty, all families and residents have returned to their homes".

Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa said on X on Saturday that "with the dismantlement of the Rukban camp and the return of the displaced, a tragic and sorrowful chapter of displacement stories created by the bygone regime's war machine comes to a close".

"Rukban was not just a camp, it was the triangle of death that bore witness to the cruelty of siege and starvation, where the regime left people to face their painful fate in the barren desert," he added.

At its peak, the camp housed more than 100,000 people. Around 8,000 people still lived there before Assad's fall, residing in mud-brick houses, with food and basic supplies smuggled in at high prices.

Syrian minister for emergency situations and disasters Raed al-Saleh said on X said the camp's closure represents "the end of one of the harshest humanitarian tragedies faced by our displaced people".

"We hope this step marks the beginning of a path that ends the suffering of the remaining camps and returns their residents to their homes with dignity and safety," he added.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 1.87 million Syrians have returned to their places of origin since Assad's fall, after they were displaced within the country or abroad.

The IOM says the "lack of economic opportunities and essential services pose the greatest challenge" for those returning home.